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R.W. Sayer, J.B. Evans, F.C. Shelly, G.H. Stokes (MIT Lincoln Laboratory)
The Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program has applied electro-optical technology developed for Air Force Space Surveillance applications to the problem of discovering Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and comets. LINEAR, which started full operations in March of 1998, has discovered through July of 2000, 422 NEAs, 25 unusual objects, and 48 comets. Currently, LINEAR is contributing ~ 70% of the world wide NEA discovery rate.
This paper covers the performance analysis of the LINEAR system addressing the system's sky coverage, volume searched (for a 1km, H=18 NEA), and the distribution of NEAs detected. The area covered per month is near 17,000 square degrees, the maximum accessible from the LINEAR site near Socorro, New Mexico. The volume searched is a function of the seeing conditions, telescope characteristics, the integration time, and the location of the fields with respect to solar opposition. With the addition of a second LINEAR telescope in the fall of 1999, even more productive, deeper searching is now possible. The position of NEA detections with respect to opposition suggest that covering the maximum area possible is an efficient way to discover NEAs.
This work sponsored by NASA and the Air Force under Air Force Contract No. F19628-00-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Air Force.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to www.ll.mit.edu/LINEAR. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.