Table 1
Overview of global space situational awareness sensors

System Devices Description Location
Groundbased Optical AMOS 3.67 m Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) and 1.6 m / 1.2 m optical telescope LEO satellites and Deep Space Surveillance, Adaptive Optics System, Imaging System, Conventional and contrast mode photometers, infrared radiometers Maui
GEODSS 3 optical telescope with 1 m aperture and 2° FoV Tracking objects in Deep space GEODSS can track objects as small as a basketball more than 30,000 km in space. Socorro, Maui, Diego Garcia
Tenerife Telescope with 1 m aperture and 0.7° FoV Space debris telescope that covers a sector of 120° of the GEO ring 2 2 mosaic CCDs of 2,048 by 2,048 pixels (corresponding to 15 cm objects at GEO altitude) Tenerife
ZIMLAT Telescope with 1 m aperture and 0.5° FoV Space telescope that covers a sector of 100° of the GEO ring, dedicated to GEO survey, Astrometry and laser ranging Zimmerwald
Groundbased Radar AN/FPS-85 UHF Phased-array radar Maximum peak power: 30 MW, It can detect 1.0 m2 objects in geosynchronous orbits and can track 200 near earth targets simultaneously Florida
Space Fence New S-band radar replaced VHF Fence Detect 75 cm objects at 30,000 km. It will detect and track as many as 150,000 additional man-made objects, some as small as a golf ball. Kwajalein Atoll etc.
Globus II X-band mono-pulse radar with a 27 m parabolic dish antenna US SSN and Fylingdales are only available Track spacecraft of all types up to range of 4,000 km Vardo, Norway
GRAVES Bistatic VHF radar, with four planar phased-array antennas of 15 m by 6 m each This system produces a ‘self-starting’ catalogue. Typically 1 m in size and larger in LEO Plateau d’Albion
TIRA L-band and Ku-band radar using 34-m parabolic reflector Radar images of space objects at a distance up to 20,000 km at Ku-band About 2 cm at 1,000 km range Wachtberg, Germany
Spacebased Optical SBSS Constellation of satellites with 30 cm diameter telescope on a twoaxis gimbal with a 2.4 megapixel Space Based Visible (SBV) sensor Operate 24-hours a day Detection of deep space object. It can monitor objects as small as a 1-meter cube all the way out to the Geosynchrounous belt Space