2025/05/06 by Benjamin F Cooke, Cooke, Benjamin F., D. Pollacco +11 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2505.03474
openalex publication_date 2025/05/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/16 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
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 simulate the resulting occultation photometry that would be caused by these satellites orbiting in LEO and intersecting with background stars. The resulting data is then inverted to attempt to recover the input shape and classify the satellite correctly. We find that the technique is theoretically sound, but ambitious with current telescope capabilities. We construct an equation for the required success rate of the method, as a function of exposure time and density of background stars. We find that successful classification requires short exposure times and high background stellar densities. For success rates in excess of 75%, we find a required exposure time of ∼2.0×10-3s, and ∼500 stars along the satellites path. Results are presented in terms of these two key parameters, and are discussed in the context of current observational capabilities and alternative satellite characterisation methods.