Asteroid radar astrometry

Ostro, S. J., D. B. Campbell, J. F. Chandler, I. I. Shapiro, A. A. Hine, R. Velez, R. F. Jurgens, K. D. Rosema, R. Winkler, and D. K. Yeomans. (1991). Astron. J. 102, 1490-1502.

We report all useful measurements of time delay and Doppler frequency for asteroid radar echoes obtained at Arecibo and Goldstone during 1980-1990. New radar astrometry is presented for 23 near-earth asteroids and three mainbelt asteroids. These measurements, which are orthogonal to optical, angular-position measurements, and typically have a fractional precision between 10^-5 and 10^-8, permit significant improvements in estimates of orbits and hence in the accuracy of prediction ephemerides. We also report estimates of radar cross section and circular polarization ratio for all asteroids observed astrometrically during 1980-1990.


Asteroid Radar Astronomy Publications