MULTISTATION COOPERATIVE ASTEROID OCCULTATION SCIENCE WITH SWRI

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MULTI-STATION COOPERATIVE ASTEROID OCCULTATION
SCIENCE WITH SWRI

• Paul D. Maley/IOTA
• And
• Bill Merline/Southwest Research Institute

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BACKGROUND

• -SwRI has innate interest in asteroid satellite
  discovery
• -IOTA key goal is to discover/confirm asteroid
  satellites
• -Multi-station techniques are the current best
  methodology of enabling such a discovery
• -Proposal grew from presentation made by IOTA at
  Colorado conference in 2008

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BEST DETECTION EVIDENCE
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DATA OBTAINED FROM INDIVIDUAL OBSERVERS, NOT
MULTI-STATION TECHNIQUE
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BEST EVIDENCE OF ONE OBSERVER AND MULTI-STATION
METHOD
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PROJECT DEFINITION

• IOTA TO DEFINE EVENTS OF INTEREST TO SWRI
• IOTA TO DETERMINE ITS OWN PRIORITY
• FILTER BY DISTANCE
• IOTA TO DEFINE PROPOSED BUDGET FOR FUNDING ONCE
  SWRI FUNDING ESTABLISHED
• SWRI TO CONSIDER PROPOSED EVENTS
• SWRI CONFIRM CONDITIONS FOR FUNDING
• IOTA PUTS INTO PLACE METHOD TO ASSURE PROPER
  EXECUTION BY MEMBERS

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IOTA FUNDING CONCEPT-1

• PAYING TRAVEL COSTS OR PARTIAL COSTS
• EACH PERSON TREATED AS A CONTRACTOR TO SOUTHWEST
  RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SWRI)
• REIMBURSEMENT IS TAXABLE TO EACH PERSON
• IOTA DETERMINES WHO GETS FUNDING (TBD)
• IOTA ASSURES THAT NO SUPPORT CAN BE VIEWED AS
  BOONDOGGLE

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IOTA FUNDING CONCEPT-2

• FUNDING TYPE 1 GAS MONEY
• FUNDING TYPE 2 AIRLINE TICKET
• IOTA FUNDING AUTHORIZED BY PI AND CO-PI IN
  CONCERT WITH IOTA

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RESULTS EXPECTED

• CHORD DATA FROM MORE THAN ONE STATION (TBD)
• NEGATIVE DATA IS A POSSIBLE OUTCOME
• REIMBURSEMENT NOT CONTINGENT ON NEGATIVE DATA BUT
  PLAN TO DEPLOY MUST BE APPROVED BY SWRI AND IOTA
  JOINTLY

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PRIORITIZATION OF FUNDED EVENTS-1

• HIGH PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS
• MULTIPLE OBSERVERS
• ENOUGH LAND COVERAGE
• EXPERIENCED OBSERVERS ONLY

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PRIORITIZATION OF FUNDED EVENTS-2

• HIGH PRIORITY TARGETS
• LARGE ASTEROIDS, MULTIPLE CHORDS OR SATELLITE
  PRESENCE
• OBJECTS FOR WHICH THERE IS LITTLE OCCULTATION
  INFO
• OBJECTS LARGER THAN 0.18 ARCSECONDS

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PRIORITIZATION OF FUNDED EVENTS-3

• OBSERVATIONS THAT MIGHT NOT HAPPEN WITHOUT
  FUNDING
• E.G. KBOs

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FUNDING CONCEPT OF MULTISTATION EXPEDITIONS

• START DATE OCTOBER 1, 2010 (TBD)
• EXAMPLE 1
• 5000 PER YEAR FOR 4 YEARS
• EXAMPLE 2
• 2010 FISCAL YEAR 2000 TOTAL EXPANDING TO
• 10,000 IN 2013

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IOTA CAPABILTIES TODAY

• STARS TO MAG 10 MIGHTY MINIS
• STARS TO MAG 11.5 80MM REFRACTOR
• STARS TO MAG 12.5 120MM REFRACTOR
• MULTISTATION DEPLOYMENT
• PRE-POINT FOR EARLY STATION SETUP
• DATA RETURN MILLISECOND TIME ACCURACY WITHIN 30
  FRAMES/SECOND VIDEO
• MOBILE DEPLOYMENT

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CAVEATS

• provided by S. Degenhardt. Actual magnitudes
  should be more like 9.5, 11, 12 under typical
  non-optimum conditions. Impacted by spectral bias
  toward red stars.
• sky conditions with no unusual circumstances,
  i.e "standard" transparency (i.e. target is 35
  degrees or higher), no strong scintillation, no
  clouds
• raw video with no enhancement needed for LiMovie
• PC164EX-2 with Owl FR at fx0.5 standard extension
• These numbers come from actual star measurements
  and LiMovie reductions

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MULTISTATION READINESS (as of 8/1/09)

• OPERATIONAL UNTENDED SITES MINI 80MM
  120MM
• S.DEGENHARDT (TN)2016..5
  .1
• D.DUNHAM (MD)13..9..6
  .2
• P.MALEY (TX)66..3
  .1
• R.NUGENT (TX)..200
  .0
• E.IVERSON (TX)..20..1
  .1
• B.SANDY(MO).10..1
  .0
• T.REDDING(FL)300
  0
• R.VENABLE(GA).500
  .0
• T.GEORGE(WA)..300
  .0
• S.PRESTON(W)5......00
  .0
• ASSUMES 1 TENDED

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ISSUES WITH MULTISTATION SYSTEM

• NOT ALL USE STANDARD OPTICS
• DEMONSTRATING SUCCESSFUL SETUP BY EACH OBSERVER
  (PRACTICE OPPORTUNITY)
• TIME FOR SETUP RELATIVE TO EVENT TIME
• COORDINATION WITH OTHER OBSERVERS
• SAFETY/SECURITY OF SITES
• POTENTIAL FOR THINGS TO GO WRONG INCREASES FOR
  EACH SEPARATE COMPONENT IN A SYSTEM
• TIME PERIOD FOR STATIONS TO BE LEFT UNTENDED
• LACK OF INDIVIDUAL GPS UNITS FOR EACH SITE
• MASS INCREASES AS THE NUMBER OF STATIONS
  INCREASES IMPACT ON TRANSPORT

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CANDIDATE ASTEROID OCCULTATIONS FOR 2010

• CHOSEN BASED ON THE FOLLOWING
• -STAR BRIGHTNESS
• -PATH RELIABILITY (from Steve Preston)
• -POTENTIAL WEATHER IN THE ZONE
• -DELTA MAGNITUDE DROP
• -EVENT DURATION
• -STAR ELEVATION
• -DISTANCE FROM THE MOON
• -PROXIMITY TO TWILIGHT
• -STAR SHOULD BE BRIGHTER THAN 11

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RESULTS

• FILTERED POTENTIALLY RELIABLE EVENTS WITH STARS
  BRIGHTER THAN 11.0 IN USA FOR MULTISTATION DEPLOY
• RISK OF PATH SHIFT FOR OTHERS
• BETTER ONES OCCUR EX-USA
• 3 EVENTS HAVE HIGH POTENTIAL FOR SUCCESS

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CANDIDATE 1

• SEPTEMBER 30 (148) GALLIA/HIP43813
• THURSDAY MORNING
• TARGET MAGNITUDE 3.1 ALT 25 42 DEG FROM 53
  SUNLIT MOON DM10 DURATION 3 seconds
• REQUIREMENTS MINI

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PATH
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CANDIDATE 2

• OCTOBER 29 (96) AEGLE / TYC2849-00615-1
• FRIDAY MORNING
• TARGET MAGNITUDE 9.7 ALT 55 63DEG FROM 62
  SUNLIT MOON DM3 DURATION 13seconds
• REQUIREMENTS 80MM or greater optics

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PATH
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CANDIDATE 3

• DECEMBER 4 (375) URSULA/TYC3358-02411-1
• SATURDAY MORNING
• TARGET MAGNITUDE 10.0 ALT 41 NO MOON DM2.4
  DURATION 16 seconds
• REQUIREMENTS 80mm or greater optics

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PATH
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PROJECT CONDITIONS

• REQUIRES MULTISTATION DEPLOY WITH HIGH CONFIDENCE
  OF SUCCESS
• DATA REQUIRED FOR POTENTIAL PUBLICATION
• REQUIRES COMPLETE PATH COVERAGE including error
  zones
• DATA MUST INCLUDE GPS TIMES WITH D AND R DATA
• SOME TBD EXPENSES POTENTIALLY REIMBURSABLE WITHIN
  BUDGET RECEIPTS REQUIRED
• PILOT TO BE ESTABLISHED FIRST
• FUNDING FOR TBD OBSERVERS INITIALLY

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FORWARD WORK

• SwRI TO CONTINUE TO EVOLVE PLAN
• INFORMATION TO BE POSTED ON LISTSERVER AT A
  FUTURE DATE (TBD)
• ASSUMING THAT FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR X
  OBSERVERS, WE WILL PROVIDE NOTIFICATION
• DEPENDENT ON RESULTS, FUTURE EXPEDITIONS MAY
  RECEIVE NO, SIMILAR OR GREATER SUPPORT

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• END