Detection of Thermal Emission at Millimeter Wavelengths from Low-Earth Orbit Satellites
The detection of satellite thermal emission at millimeter wavelengths is presented using data from the 3rd-Generation receiver on the South Pole Telescope (SPT-3G). This represents the first reported detection of thermal emission from artificial satellites at millimeter wavelengths. Satellite thermal emission is shown to be detectable at high signal-to-noise on timescales as short as a few tens of milliseconds. An algorithm for downloading orbital information and tracking known satellites given observer constraints and time-ordered observatory pointing is described. Consequences for cosmological surveys and short-duration transient searches are discussed, revealing that the integrated thermal emission from all large satellites does not contribute significantly to the SPT-3G survey intensity map. Measured satellite positions are found to be discrepant from their two-line element (TLE) derived ephemerides up to several arcminutes which may present a difficulty in cross-checking or masking satellites from short-duration transient searches.
Authors
- Chunyu Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0342-8283)
- F. Bianchini
- T. Natoli
- K. Fichman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1430-9040)
- T. de Haan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5105-9473)
- E. Hivon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1880-2733)
- N. W. Halverson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2606-9340)
- Karen Lévy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0968-9401)
- J. Stephen
- L. Balkenhol
- P. Chaubal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9722-9028)
- Abhishek S. Maniyar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4617-9320)
- A. Coerver (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2707-1672)
- S. Guns (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7143-2853)
- C. L. Reichardt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2226-9169)
- F. Kéruzoré (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9605-5588)
- G. P. Holder
- J. E. Carlstrom
- K. R. Dibert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7439-8726)
- A. J. Anderson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4435-4623)
- E. Schiappucci
- F. Guidi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7593-3962)
- P. Paschos
- A. Rahlin
- M. Rahimi
- L. Bryant
- T.-L. Chou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3091-8790)
- C. Tandoi
- M. Millea (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7317-0551)
- B. A. Benson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5108-6823)
- M. Korman
- M. Archipley
- Y. Wan
- L. E. Bleem (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7665-5079)
- C. Umilta
- J. A. Sobrin
- Kedar A. Phadke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7946-557X)
- J. D. Vieira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7192-3871)
- K. R. Ferguson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4928-8813)
- Z. Pan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6164-9861)
- F. R. Bouchet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8051-2924)
- C. Chang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7887-0896)
- J. E. Ruhl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5875-4751)
- M. Rouble
- A. Doussot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4586-7586)
- A. Foster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7145-1824)
- P. M. Chichura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5397-9035)
- K. Prabhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1152-6193)
- Y. Omori
- T. M. Crawford (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9000-5013)
- C. Daley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3760-2086)
- Cynthia Trendafilova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5500-4058)
- N. Goeckner-Wald
- N. Whitehorn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3157-0407)
- Behzad Ansarinejad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6443-3396)
- D. Dutcher
- J. C. Hood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4157-4185)
- C.-L. Kuo
- B. Thorne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0457-0153)
- Y. Nakato
- W. L. Holzapfel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5744-6439)
- F. Menanteau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1372-2534)
- G. I. Noble (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5254-243X)
- M. Dobbs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7166-6422)
- A. N. Bender (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5868-0748)
- A. Hryciuk
- R. Gualtieri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4245-2315)
- A. E. Gambrel
- Alexander W. Pollak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3430-7671)
- Arati Chokshi
- D. R. Barron
- A. A. Stark (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2718-9996)
- W. L. K. Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5411-6920)
- E. Camphuis
- J. A. Zebrowski
- K. Kornoelje
- A. Vitrier
- Fan Ge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1249-6352)
- K. Benabed
- A. E. Lowitz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4747-4276)
- R. W. Gardner
- S. Galli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2036-4650)
- M. R. Young
- L. Knox
- W. Everett
- N. Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8278-6590)
- J. Montgomery (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1715-1107)
- Wei Quan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2130-3046)
- C. Feng
- A. R. Khalife
- E. S. Martsen
Institutions
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CA)
- Argonne National Laboratory (US)
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (JP)
- Urbana University (US)
- Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (FR)
- University of Illinois System (US)
- University of Colorado System (US)
- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (US)
- Electronics for Imaging (United States) (US)
- Menlo School (US)
- Northwestern University (PH)
- Astrobiology Center (JP)
- Melbourne Health (AU)
- McGill University (CA)
- Case Western Reserve University (US)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Michigan State University (US)
- Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (NL)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Open Journal of Astrophysics
- Published
- 2025-05-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.33232/001c.137526
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Spacecraft Design and Technology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.99
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- University of Chicago
- Office of Science
- U.S. Air Force
- High Energy Physics
- Argonne National Laboratory
- Fermilab