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Main Authors: Gonçalves, Luís, Coelho, Bruno, Barbosa, Domingos, Bergano, Miguel, Bonifácio, Vitor, Maia, Dalmiro
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.04245
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author Gonçalves, Luís
Coelho, Bruno
Barbosa, Domingos
Bergano, Miguel
Bonifácio, Vitor
Maia, Dalmiro
author_facet Gonçalves, Luís
Coelho, Bruno
Barbosa, Domingos
Bergano, Miguel
Bonifácio, Vitor
Maia, Dalmiro
contents Orbiting space objects have become in the last decade a major nuisance impacting ground astronomy and orbiting space assets, from observatories to satellites and space stations. In particular with the rise of the satellite population in Low Earth Orbits (LEOs), space objects are becoming an even bigger threat and a strong problem to astronomical observations. To tackle these threats several coordinated surveillance networks composed of dedicated sensors (telescopes, radars and laser ranging facilities) track and survey space objects, from debris to active satellites. As part of the European Space Surveillance \& Tracking (EU-SST) network, Portugal is developing the PAmpilhosa da Serra Space Observatory (PASO), with both radio and optical telescopes dedicated to the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) domain, deployed at a Dark Sky destination. To optimize telescope survey time, we developed {\tt{CLOWN}} (CLOud Watcher at Night), an application interface that automatically monitors clouds in real time. This software can correctly trace clouds positions in the sky, provides accurate pointing information to the observation planning of the optical telescope to avoid cloudy areas. {\tt{CLOWN}} only requires the use of an all-sky camera, which is already a norm in observatories with optical telescopes and can be used with any camera, including those for which no information about its model specification do exist. {\tt{CLOWN}} does not require great computing power and it does not require the installation of additional equipment. {\tt{CLOWN}} results are very promising and confirm that the app can correctly identify clouds in a variety of different conditions and cloud types.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_04245
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle CLOWN: The PASO cloud detection for optimization of automatic optical surveys
Gonçalves, Luís
Coelho, Bruno
Barbosa, Domingos
Bergano, Miguel
Bonifácio, Vitor
Maia, Dalmiro
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Instrumentation and Detectors
Orbiting space objects have become in the last decade a major nuisance impacting ground astronomy and orbiting space assets, from observatories to satellites and space stations. In particular with the rise of the satellite population in Low Earth Orbits (LEOs), space objects are becoming an even bigger threat and a strong problem to astronomical observations. To tackle these threats several coordinated surveillance networks composed of dedicated sensors (telescopes, radars and laser ranging facilities) track and survey space objects, from debris to active satellites. As part of the European Space Surveillance \& Tracking (EU-SST) network, Portugal is developing the PAmpilhosa da Serra Space Observatory (PASO), with both radio and optical telescopes dedicated to the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) domain, deployed at a Dark Sky destination. To optimize telescope survey time, we developed {\tt{CLOWN}} (CLOud Watcher at Night), an application interface that automatically monitors clouds in real time. This software can correctly trace clouds positions in the sky, provides accurate pointing information to the observation planning of the optical telescope to avoid cloudy areas. {\tt{CLOWN}} only requires the use of an all-sky camera, which is already a norm in observatories with optical telescopes and can be used with any camera, including those for which no information about its model specification do exist. {\tt{CLOWN}} does not require great computing power and it does not require the installation of additional equipment. {\tt{CLOWN}} results are very promising and confirm that the app can correctly identify clouds in a variety of different conditions and cloud types.
title CLOWN: The PASO cloud detection for optimization of automatic optical surveys
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Instrumentation and Detectors
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.04245