Friday

Astronomers in general acknowledge the merits of worldwide, broadband internet services satellite companies have potentially can supply, especially to hard-to-reach areas. However, there are repercussions to the field of astronomy.

To investigate the impact from satellite constellations to the field of astronomy and derive mitigation strategies, two workshops were conducted in 2020, SATCON1 (June) and Dark and Quiet Skies (D&QS) (October). Astronomers and individuals from the satellite and illumination engineering industries conducted research and held discussions in the areas of observation, simulation, mitigation testing, and metrics to produce recommendations for stakeholders. The results were presented at the workshops and published as reports which are found here: https://noirlab.edu/public/products/techdocs/.

The reports suggest several strategies with which observatories and satellite companies can address light pollution issues associated with satellite constellations. These strategies include lowering satellite orbits to be in the Earth’s shadow much of the time, using less reflective materials on the satellites (e.g., darkening them with paint or using sunshields), adjusting attitudes so satellite surfaces are not facing the Earth, having fewer satellites launch (e.g., only the number needed), orbit-raising or deorbiting satellites as soon as possible, supplying astronomers with the location and timing of these satellites over the observatories, and helping astronomers create avoidance and streak removal software.

The next SATCON workshop (SATCON2) takes place the week before NAM2021. The next D&QS conference is in October 2021. Both meetings will use the results from the first workshops to plan feasible implementation strategies and develop policy recommendations. The D&QS executive summary (in the above link) and a Technical Presentation were recently presented at the April 2021 UN COPUOS Science and Technology Sub-Committee meeting in an effort to increase global awareness of this issue and acquire support worldwide. In this talk I describe the outcomes of this work.