High-fidelity Simulations of the Near-Earth Object Search Performance of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

Abstract

We perform high fidelity simulations of a wide-field telescopic survey searching for Near-Earth Objects (NEO) larger than 140\,m, focusing on the observational and detection model, detection efficiency and accuracy. As a test survey we select the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. We use its proposed pointings for a 10-year mission and model the detection of near-Earth objects in the fields. We discuss individual model parameters for magnitude losses, vignetting, fading, asteroid rotation and colors, fill factor, limiting magnitude, rate of motion, field shape and rotation and survey patterns and we assess results in terms of the cumulative completeness of the detected population as a function of size and time. Additionally, we examine the sources of modeling uncertainty and derive the overall NEO population completeness for the baseline LSST survey to be $55\pm 5$% for NEOs with absolute magnitude brighter than 22. Including already discovered objects and ongoing surveys, the population completeness at the end of the LSST baseline survey should reach $\sim 77\%$.

44 pages, 20 figures, 11 tables. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1705.06209

References in corpus (3)

• Solar System evolution from compositional mapping of the asteroid belt
• Near-Earth Object Orbit Linking with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
• The size-frequency distribution of H>13 NEOs and ARM targets detected by Pan-STARRS1

Cited by in corpus (14)

• NEOMOD: A New Orbital Distribution Model for Near Earth Objects
• The Orbit and Size-Frequency Distribution of Long Period Comets Observed by Pan-STARRS1
• Predictions of the LSST Solar System Yield: Near-Earth Objects, Main Belt Asteroids, Jupiter Trojans, and Trans-Neptunian Objects
• Near-Earth Object Orbit Linking with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
• Discovering Earth's transient moons with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
• The wind-driven halo in high-contrast images I: analysis from the focal plane images of SPHERE
• The digest2 NEO Classification Code
• Constraining the Shape Distribution of Near Earth Objects from Partial Lightcurves
• THOR: An Algorithm for Cadence-Independent Asteroid Discovery
• Numerical Simulations of Tidal Deformation and Resulting Light Curves of Small Bodies: Material Constraints of 99942 Apophis and 1I/`Oumuamua
• Fitting the Light Curve of 1I/`Oumuamua with a Nonprincipal Axis Rotational Model and Outgassing Torques
• Improving the discovery of near-Earth objects with machine-learning methods
• Shape-Driven Selection Effects for Aspherical Near-Earth Objects in Systematic Surveys
• The Implications of 'Oumuamua on Panspermia