Ground-Based Electro-Optical Detection of Artificial Satellites in Daylight from Reflected Sunlight

An electro-optical sensor consisting of the ETS 31-inch f5 telescope, a readily-available silicon vidicon TV camera, and a video signal processing system was used to acquire and track low altitude satellites in daylight from reflected sunlight. The limiting magnitude was 8m3. In demonstrating this, a total of 20 satellite tracks on 18 different satellites was achieved in full daylight during one day, and accurate precision positional data on 13 of the tracks were sent to the NORAD Space Defense Center. This demonstrated proof-of-concept might provide an enhanced GEODSS daylight operation. In connection with experiments in daylight space surveillance, an atmospheric phenomenon was encountered which consists primarily of point images, apparently windblown, moving through the field-of-view. The leading candidates are seed vehicles, insects, and ice crystals. A parallax technique has been demonstrated to separate these objects, dubbed angels, from artificial satellites.