Asteroid shapes from radar echo spectra: A new theoretical approach (original) (raw)
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Abstract
A new approach to obtaining information about an asteroid's shape uses echo spectra acquired at many rotational phases to obtain the convex envelope, or hull, of the asteroid's polar silhouette. The approach follows naturally from the geometric relation between spectral edge frequencies and the shape of a rotating, rigid radar target. Estimation of an asteroid's hull from radar data, which always contain some noise, is a problem in weighted-least-squares optimization subject to inequality constraints. A series of such estimations are carried out on simulated data to explore the propagation of spectral noise into hull error and to assess sensitivity to echo strength and spectral resolution. The technique can be applied immediately to several near-Earth asteroid radar data sets.
Publication:
Icarus
Pub Date:
January 1988
DOI:
Bibcode:
Keywords:
- Asteroid Belts;
- Light Curve;
- Radar Echoes;
- Radar Targets;
- Computational Astrophysics;
- Least Squares Method;
- Spectral Resolution;
- ASTEROIDS;
- SHAPE;
- SPECTRA;
- RADAR METHODS;
- THEORETICAL STUDIES;
- GEOMETRY;
- ROTATION;
- TECHNIQUE;
- DIAGRAMS;
- PARAMETERS;
- CALCULATIONS;
- PROCEDURE