Abstract

A technique has been developed for calculating the intensities of the thermal self-radiation of a space object in the form of a flat face in the viewing direction as a function of its tilt angle to the plane of the local horizon in the earth’s shadow. The main laws governing the formation of the temperatures and radiant intensities of such an object as they depend on the altitude above the earth’s surface are compared with the characteristics inherent in a spherical object. It is shown that a flat object can be remotely distinguished from an object of spherical shape on the basis of the detected regularities. In terms of physically valid limitations, a technique is proposed for remotely determining the characteristic size of a flat face, based on a comparison of the recorded radiation fluxes with the radiation fluxes of a spherical reference object in two spectral ranges and from two observation aspects.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

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