CAPABILITIES OF EARTH-BASED RADAR FACILITIES FOR NEAR-EARTH ASTEROID OBSERVATIONS

Abstract

ABSTRACT We evaluated the planetary radar capabilities at Arecibo, the Goldstone 70 m DSS-14 and 34 m DSS-13 antennas, the 70 m DSS-43 antenna at Canberra, the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), and the Parkes Radio Telescope in terms of their relative sensitivities and the number of known near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) detectable per year in monostatic and bistatic configurations. In the 2015 calendar year, monostatic observations with Arecibo and DSS-14 were capable of detecting 253 and 131 NEAs respectively, with signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) greater than 30/track. Combined, the two observatories were capable of detecting 276 NEAs. Of these, Arecibo detected 77 and Goldstone detected 32, or 30% and 24% of the numbers that were possible. The two observatories detected an additional 18 and 7 NEAs respectively, with SNRs of less than 30/track. This indicates that a substantial number of potential targets are not being observed. The bistatic configuration with DSS-14 transmitting and the GBT receiving was capable of detecting about 195 NEAs, or ∼50% more than with monostatic observations at DSS-14. Most of the detectable asteroids were targets of opportunity that were discovered less than 15 days before the end of their observing windows. About 50% of the detectable asteroids have absolute magnitudes , which corresponds to diameters m.