Introduction to Spaceborne Radars for SSA

Speaker

Dr. Marco Maffei, Thales Alenia Space – Italia (TAS-I)

Abstract

The space environment around planet Earth comprises a variety of nonhomogeneous and nonstationary fluxes of natural and man-made junk, which may collide with strategic orbital infrastructure, jeopardize the space economy, and pose a severe threat to the Homeland Protection (HP). To this end, large ground-based radars and optical telescopes allow monitoring debris populations by forming fence coverage areas along with a grueling data fusion for orbit estimation while coping with limits related to temporal and spatial observation constraints, atmospheric hindrances, and detection performance (especially with respect to small-size targets). Recently, research efforts have also been devoted to contriving an active space-based debris detection and tracking capability in the microwave region to complement current surveillance assets for an improved Space Situational Awareness (SSA). Accordingly, this short lecture presents a brief introduction to novel Spaceborne Radar (SBR) archetypes for SSA.

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The Trento International School on Observation of the Earth and of the Universe (TISOEU) is an educational facility focused on the Sciences of the Earth and the Universe. It realizes initiatives for the scientific community, for undergraduate and doctoral students, as well as for stakeholders.