SSA Analysis of GEOS Photometric Signature Classifications and Solar Panel Offsets

We analyze the photometric signatures of 36 GEOS located over CONUS or US Pacific territory by introducing a photometry-based classification system. Approximately 80% of these satellites appear to belong to one of two different classifications and can be qualitatively explained by the actual satellite shape. For those satellite signatures with an identifiable peak in brightness, we also examined the satellites’ solar panel pointing offsets. The distribution of offsets ranges from -10 to +10 and is slightly concentrated near a value of 0 with a slight positive bias. The utility of this kind of study lies mostly in two areas. The first is that development of the classification system will lead to better Space Object Identification (SOI) techniques. The second will lead to better Space Situational Awareness (SSA) techniques as observations of change detections in the solar panel offsets give insight into operations, health status, and/or anomalies of satellites.