Related papers: Satellite Optical Brightness
The global transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy production is a major challenge. We present an innovative solution by utilizing smartphone light sensors to measure direct normal solar irradiance, the primary component of…
Diffuse glow has been observed around brightly lit cities in nighttime satellite imagery since at least the first publication of large scale maps in the late 1990s. In the literature, this has often been assumed to be an error related to…
Measurements from the Solar Irradiance Monitor (SIM) onboard the SORCE mission indicate that solar spectral irradiance at Visible and IR wavelengths varies in counter phase with the solar activity cycle. The sign of these variations is not…
A precise ground based telescope system was developed for laser communication experiments with the geostationary satellite ARTEMIS of ESA. Precise tracking of the satellite was realized by using time resolved coordinates of the satellite.…
Opacity is a property of many plasmas, and it is normally expected that if an emission line in a plasma becomes optically thick, its intensity ratio to that of another transition that remains optically thin should decrease. However,…
Determining the all-sky radiance distribution produced by artificial light sources is a computationally demanding task that generally requires an intensive calculation load. We develop in this work an analytic formulation that provides the…
The natural night sky brightness is a relevant input for monitoring the light pollution evolution at observatory sites, by subtracting it from the overall sky brightness determined by direct measurements. It is also instrumental for…
We present the map of the artificial sky brightness in Europe in V band with a resolution of approximately 1 km. The aim is to understand the state of night sky pollution in Europe, to quantify the present situation and to allow future…
We present revised point-spread functions (PSFs) for the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). These PSFs provide a robust estimate of the light diffracted by the meshes holding the entrance and…
The absolute reflectance of a reflector and its point spread function are the key parameters of a telescope for measuring light flux. Typically, one is using low-cost technologies for producing mirrors for the needs of astro-particle…
We present corrections for the change in the apparent scalelengths, central surface brightnesses and axis ratios due to the presence of dust in pure disk galaxies, as a function of inclination, central face-on opacity in the B-band…
The high-resolution, SPH galaxies of the McMaster Unbiased Galaxy Survey (MUGS) are used to examine the satellite systems of sixteen model host galaxies. Each galaxy has a different mass, angular momentum and merger history that yield a…
Minor bodies of the solar system can be used to measure the spectrum of the Sun as a star by observing sunlight reflected by their surfaces. To perform an accurate measurement of the radial velocity of the Sun as a star by this method, it…
Regular spaceborne measurements have revealed that solar brightness varies on multiple timescales, variations on timescales greater than a day being attributed to surface magnetic field. Independently, ground-based and spaceborne…
Visual magnitudes and sky coordinates are projected for the full constellation of Starlink satellites. The results are presented in the form of sky maps and numerical tables. Observer latitudes from the equator to 60 degrees are considered.…
Space-based and ground-based telescopes have extensively documented the impact of satellites on astronomical observations. With the proliferation of satellite mega-constellation programs, their influence on astronomical observations has…
We proposed an analytical model for the calculus of illumination time of the Earth for any time of year and any latitude, this model assumes the obliquity of the ecliptic as constant, the light beams as parallels, the Earth as spherical,…
We have used Voyager and Galex observations to map the diffuse Galactic light near the Galactic equator. We find that most of the observations are relatively faint with surface brightnesses of less than 5,000 photon units. This is important…
Earthshine is the dominant source of natural illumination on the surface of the Moon during lunar night, and at locations within permanently shadowed regions that never receive direct sunlight. As such, earthshine may enable the exploration…
Substructures, expected in cold dark matter haloes, have been proposed to explain the anomalous flux ratios in gravitational lenses. About 25% of lenses in the Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey (CLASS) appear to have luminous satellites within ~ 5…