Related papers: Diffuse and specular brightness models applied to …
Artificial satellites orbiting around the Earth, under certain conditions, result to be visible even to the naked eye. The phenomenon of light pollution jeopardises the researching activities of the astronomical community: traces left by…
Modeling the brightness of satellites in large Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations can not only assist the astronomical community in assessing the impact of reflected light from satellites, optimizing observing schedules and guiding data…
The Steward Observatory LEO Satellite Photometric Survey is a comprehensive observational survey to characterize the apparent brightness of the Starlink and OneWeb low Earth orbit satellites and evaluate the potential impact on astronomy.…
We present novel techniques and methodology for unresolved photometric characterization of low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. With the Pomenis LEO Satellite Photometric Survey our team has made over 14,000 observations of Starlink and OneWeb…
The apparent brightness of satellites is calculated as a function of satellite position as seen by a ground-based observer in darkness. Both direct illumination of the satellite by the Sun as well as indirect illumination due to reflection…
A model that combines celestial geometry and atmospheric physics is used to calculate the dimming of artificial satellites as they enter and exit the Earth's shadow. Refraction of sunlight by the terrestrial atmosphere can illuminate a…
The mean apparent magnitude and the mean of magnitudes adjusted to a standard distance are reported. The illumination phase function for OneWeb satellites is determined and it differs strongly from that of VisorSat spacecraft. Brightness…
The development of low earth orbit (LEO) mega-constellation fundamentally threatens ground-based optical astronomical observations. To study the photometric properties of the LEO mega-constellations, we used the Xinglong 50 cm telescope to…
For terrestrial exoplanets with thin atmospheres or no atmospheres, the surface contributes light to the reflected light signal of the planet. Measurement of the variety of disk-integrated brightnesses of bodies in the Solar System and the…
The properties of satellite dwarf galaxies pose important empirical constraints to verify cosmological models on galaxy scales. Their phase-space correlations, in particular, offer interesting insights into various models. Next to the…
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication is a promising solution for global wireless coverage, especially in underserved and remote areas. However, the high relative velocity of LEO satellites induces significant Doppler shifts that…
We present the result of a proof-of-concept simulation designed to classify LEO satellites based on their occultations of background stars. We generate satellite shapes drawn from two broad shape classes, 'boxwing' and 'square'. We then…
We present a novel method, based on the Saunderson corrections, to predict the reflectance between a liquid interface and a dielectric diffuser. In this method, the diffuse properties of the dielectric are characterized using a single…
In August 2025 a workshop was convened to bring together experts to better understand steps that can be taken to mitigate the impact of satellite constellations on astronomical observations. At the time, just over 12,000 operational…
The low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite network with mega-constellations can provide global coverage while supporting the high-data rates. The coverage performance of such a network is highly dependent on orbit geometry parameters, including…
Measuring photometric brightness is a common tool for characterizaing satellites. However, characterizing satellite mega-constellations and their impact on astronomy research requires a new approach and methodology. A few measurements of…
We propose a method to account for the Earth oblateness effect in preliminary orbit determination of satellites in low orbits with radar observations. This method is an improvement of the one described in (Gronchi et al 2015), which uses a…
Recent observations of surface brightness distributions of both Milky Way and M31 satellite galaxies have revealed many instances of sudden changes or breaks in the slope of the surface brightness profiles (at some break radius, r_break).…
As emerging massive constellations are intended to provide seamless connectivity for remote areas using hundreds of small low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, new methodologies have great importance to study the performance of these networks.…
Understanding reflectance-related quantities for worlds enables effective comparative planetology and strengthens mission planning and execution. Measurements of these properties for Earth, especially its geometric albedo and phase…