DebrisWatch I: A survey of faint geosynchronous debris

Recent anomalies exhibited by satellites and rocket bodies have highlighted that a population of faint debris exists at geosynchronous (GEO) altitudes, where there are no natural removal mechanisms. Despite previous optical surveys probing to around 10–20 cm in size, regular monitoring of faint sources at GEO is challenging, thus our knowledge remains sparse. It is essential that we continue to explore the faint debris population using large telescopes to better understand the risk posed to active GEO satellites. To this end, we present photometric results from a survey of the GEO region carried out with the 2.54 m Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma, Canary Islands. We probe to 21st visual magnitude (around 10 cm, assuming Lambertian spheres with an albedo of 0.1), uncovering 129 orbital tracks with GEO-like motion across the eight nights of dark-grey time comprising the survey. The faint end of our brightness distribution continues to rise until the sensitivity limit of the sensor is reached, suggesting that the modal brightness could be even fainter. We uncover a number of faint, uncatalogued objects that show photometric signatures of rapid tumbling, many of which straddle the limiting magnitude of our survey over the course of a single exposure, posing a complex issue when estimating object size. This work presents the first instalment of DebrisWatch, an ongoing collaboration between the University of Warwick and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (UK) investigating the faint population of GEO debris.     

基于MATLAB的自动控制系统仿真与分析

本文在给出机器人行走系统的数学模型的基础上，利用 MATLAB对控制系统进行仿真，同时详细地分析了控制系统，给出了系统的时域性能指标、开环频率特性及根轨迹，说明了系统设计的有效性。     

DORIS and GPS monitoring of the Gavdos calibration site in Crete

Due to its specific geographical location as well as its geodetic equipment (DORIS, GNSS, microwave transponder and tide gauges), the Gavdos station in Crete, Greece is one of the very few sites around the world used for satellite altimetry calibration. To investigate the quality of the Gavdos geodetic coordinates and velocities, we analyzed and compared here DORIS and GPS-derived results obtained during several years of observations. The DORIS solution is the latest ignwd11 solution at IGN, expressed in ITRF2008, while the GPS solution was obtained using the GAMIT software package. Current results show that 1–2 mm/yr agreement can be obtained for 3-D velocity, showing a good agreement with current geophysical models. In particular, the agreement obtained for the vertical velocity is around 0.3–0.4 mm/yr, depending on the terrestrial reference frame. As a by-product of these geodetic GPS and DORIS results, Zenith Tropospheric Delays (ZTDs) estimations were also compared in 2010 between these two techniques, and compared to ECMWF values, showing a 6.6 mm agreement in dispersion without any significant difference between GPS and DORIS (with a 97.6% correlation), but with a 13–14 mm agreement in dispersion when comparing to ECMWF model (with only about 90% correlation for both techniques). These tropospheric delay estimations could also provide an external calibration of the tropospheric correction used for the geophysical data of satellite altimetry missions.