(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-05-02)
Brew, Julian; Holzinger, Marcus J.
Although the detection of Earth-orbiting space objects is generally achieved
using optical and radar measurements, these methods are limited in the ca pability of detecting small space objects at geosynchronous altitudes. This
paper examines the use of magnetometers to detect plausible flyby encoun ters with charged space objects using a matched filter signal existence binary
hypothesis test approach on archival fluxgate magnetometer data from the
NASA THEMIS mission. Relevant data-set processing and reduction is dis cussed in detail. Using the proposed methodology, 285 plausible detections
are claimed and several are reviewed in detail.
Keywords: resident space objects; matched filter; admissible region;
geostationary orbit; binary hypothesis testing