CONTINUED ARCHIVING REPROCESSING AND CURATION OF SPACEWATCH IMAGERY OF THE NIGHT SKY AND MEASUREMENTS OF ASTEROIDS ARE PROPOSED. WE WILL REPROCESS OUR LEGACY DATA TO CONFORM TO THE NEW IAU2015 FORMAT MAINTAIN AND UPGRADE THE DATABASE AND EXPORT IT TO THE SMALL BODIES NODE OF NASA'S PLANETARY DATA SYSTEM AND/OR A MORE NIMBLE PERMANENT PUBLIC ARCHIVE. SPACEWATCH ASTROMETRY AND PHOTOMETRY OF ASTEROIDS ARE FUNDED THROUGH CY 2017 BY GRANTS FROM NASA/NEOO. AVAILABLE SPACEWATCH DATA COLLECTED WITH VARIOUS CAMERAS AND SOFTWARE DATE BACK TO 1985. ANOTHER GRANT FROM NASA/NEOO WHICH EXPIRES SOON TEMPORARILY SUPPORTS THE INTRODUCTION OF DATA FROM THE MOST VOLUMINOUS AND MOST UNIFORM MODE OF OPERATION OF SPACEWATCH TO THE WEB FOR PUBLIC ACCESS WHICH HAS BEEN DONE. THIS 2003-2015 SURVEY WITH THE SPACEWATCH 0.9-METER TELESCOPE HAS GOOD ASTROMETRIC AND PHOTOMETRIC ACCURACY AND REVISITED THE SAME COHORTS OF MAIN BELT ASTEROIDS AT 4-DAY INTERVALS BY MIGRATING THE TELESCOPE POINTINGS APPROPRIATELY. THIS PATTERN HAS MADE POSSIBLE MULTI-NIGHT PREDISCOVERY DETECTIONS ("PRECOVERIES") OF NEAR EARTH OBJECTS (NEOS) WHEN THEY WERE DISTANT SLOWLY MOVING AND THEREFORE ORIGINALLY UNNOTICED AND IS A SIMILARLY UNIQUE ASSET TO OTHER RESEARCHES IN THE TEMPORAL DOMAIN. LIMITING V MAGNITUDE IS 20-21.5 AND SKY COVERAGE IS 1400 SQUARE DEGREES PER LUNATION THREE TIMES PER POSITION. THIS SURVEY WAS IN OPERATION UNIFORMLY WITH THE SAME EQUIPMENT AND PROCEDURE FROM 2003 TO MID-2015 PRODUCING SOME 17 TB OF IMAGING DATA IN RAW FORMAT. (SUBSEQUENT TO 2015 SEPT. THE TELESCOPE BEGAN TO BE USED MORE FOR FOLLOWUP TARGETING ON SPECIFIC OBJECTS RATHER THAN THE ABOVE SURVEY PATTERN.) SPACEWATCH DATA IN OTHER FORMATS FROM 1985-2016 AND WITH OTHER TELESCOPES WILL ALSO BE REPROCESSED WITH SUPPORT FROM THIS NEW GRANT. PROCESSING INCLUDES DOCUMENTATION OF INSTRUMENTAL PARAMETERS BIAS SUBTRACTION FLAT-FIELDING DEFRINGING POSITIONAL REGISTRATION ASTROMETRIC MAPPING AND INDEXING RELEVANT IMAGE PARAMETERS TO A SEARCHABLE DATABASE. WEB-BASED TOOLS TO ACCESS IMAGES EXPECTED TO CONTAIN USER-SPECIFIED MOVING OBJECTS ARE PROVIDED TO THE PUBLIC. VALUES TO BE ADDED TO OUR ASTROMETRY RECORDS WHILE REFORMATTING OUR 1985-2016 DATA FROM THE MPC1992 TO THE IAU2015 STANDARDS INCLUDE: ISOLATING ASTROMETRIC TRACKLETS AND PROVIDING DIRECTORY PATHS BACK TO THEIR ORIGINAL IMAGE DATA ESTIMATING THE RANDOM COMPONENTS OF ASTROMETRIC ERRORS WHILE RE-REDUCING IMAGE ASTROMETRY TO A MODERN STAR CATALOG EXTRACTING APPARENT MAGNITUDE UNCERTAINTY SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO AND THE SIZE OF THE SEEING DISC AND ABSTRACTING NOTES ABOUT QUALITATIVE OBSERVING CIRCUMSTANCES. WE WILL ANALYZE THE REPROCESSED IMAGES FOR INCIDENTAL DETECTIONS OF ASTEROIDS THAT WERE TOO FAINT FOR THE SOFTWARE THAT WAS ORIGINALLY APPLIED. WE WILL ALSO MAKE TARGETED RECOVERIES OF SPECIFIC NEOS AND COMETS AND REPORT NEW ASTROMETRY AND PHOTOMETRY TO THE MPC THUS IMPROVING KNOWLEDGE OF THE OBJECTS' ORBITS. PRIORITY CAN BE GIVEN TO OBJECTS ON THE MPC'S CONFIRMATION PAGE IMPACT RISK LISTS TARGETS OF RADAR AND POTENTIAL DESTINATIONS FOR SPACECRAFT. TOWARD BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF NEOS WE ALSO MAINTAIN LISTS OF SECONDARY TARGETS OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST SUCH AS NEOS FOR WHICH TAXONOMIC SPECTROPHOTOMETRY INFRARED FLUXES AND DIAMETERS ARE AVAILABLE. ASTEROIDS WHOSE ORBITS AND ALBEDOS SUGGEST THAT THEY MIGHT BE DORMANT COMETS CAN ALSO BE CHECKED FOR COMETARY FEATURES. IN ANTICIPATION THAT OUR REGULAR OBSERVING GRANTS WILL BE RENEWED FOR ANOTHER THREE YEARS WE REQUEST THIS GRANT TO LAST THREE YEARS SO THAT ALL THE DATA WE COLLECT CAN BE SUBMITTED TO PEER REVIEW AND UPLOADED INTO THE WEB SITES. BEYOND THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND BEYOND THE REACH OF THE PRESENT PROPOSAL THE CADENCE OF THE SPACEWATCH MOSAIC DATA CAN PROVIDE SAMPLING OF VARIABLE STARS AND GALAXIES ON TIME SCALES FROM TENS OF MINUTES TO 12 YEARS A RANGE RARELY AVAILABLE FROM DATABASES OF THIS TYPE.
$684,039FY2017National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ