Towards a European Facility for Ground-Based Radar Observations of Near-Earth Objects

Pupillo, G.; Righini, S.; Orosei, R.; Bortolotti, C.; Maccaferri, G.; Roma, M.; Mastrogiuseppe, M.; Pisanu, T.; Schirru, L.; Cicalò, S.; Tripodo, A.; Harju, J.; Penttilä, A.; Virkki, A.K.; Bach, U.; Kraus, A.; Margheri, A.; Ghiani, R.; Iacolina, M.N.; Valente, G.; Koschny, D.; Moissl, R.; Sessler, G. Toward a European Facility for Ground-Based Radar Observations of Near-Earth Objects. Remote Sens. 2024, 16, 38. Pupillo, G.; Righini, S.; Orosei, R.; Bortolotti, C.; Maccaferri, G.; Roma, M.; Mastrogiuseppe, M.; Pisanu, T.; Schirru, L.; Cicalò, S.; Tripodo, A.; Harju, J.; Penttilä, A.; Virkki, A.K.; Bach, U.; Kraus, A.; Margheri, A.; Ghiani, R.; Iacolina, M.N.; Valente, G.; Koschny, D.; Moissl, R.; Sessler, G. Toward a European Facility for Ground-Based Radar Observations of Near-Earth Objects. Remote Sens. 2024, 16, 38.

Abstract

In this work, we present preliminary results of radar observations of near-Earth Objects (NEOs) carried out by European radio telescopes in the framework of the European Space Agency (ESA) project “NEO observation concepts for radar systems”, which was aimed to derive the functional requirements of a radar system, evaluate the available European assets to perform NEO radar observations and carry out test radar campaigns. In the first part of the project, we carried out the performance analysis of a possible European planetary radar system. Instrumental features, as much as issues like the impact of weather conditions on signal propagation at different radio frequencies, were considered. This paper is focused on the test campaigns, performed in the years 2021-22 in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which led to the observation of several asteroids including 2021 AF8, (4660) Nereus and 2005 LW3, which allowed us to derive astrometric measurements, as well as to measure physical properties, such as rotation periods, and detect an asteroid’s satellite. The obtained results demonstrate that European radio astronomical dishes, although employed only as receivers (in bistatic or multistatic configurations) and for a limited amount of time, are able to provide a significant contribution to the constitution of a European network to increase the opportunities for NEO monitoring and studies, if a transmitting antenna - equipped with a suitable high-power transmitter - were made available.

Keywords

radar; near-Earth Objects; asteroids; planetary defense

Subject

Physical Sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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