The rate of satellite glints in ZTF and LSST sky surveys (2310.17322v1)

Abstract: We assess the impact of satellite glints -- rapid flashes produced by reflections of a sunlight from flat surfaces of rotating satellites -- on current and future deep sky surveys such as the ones conducted by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). In addition to producing a large number of streaks polluting the images, artificial satellites and space debris also generate great amount of false point-source alerts hindering the search for new rapid astrophysical transients. To investigate the extent of this problem, we perform an analysis of isolated single frame events detected by ZTF in more than three years of its operation, and, using three different methods, assess the fraction of them related to artificial satellites to be at least 20\%. The satellites causing them occupy all kinds of orbits around the Earth, and the duration of flashes produced by their rotation is from a fraction of a second down to milliseconds, with mean all-sky rate of up to 80,000 per hour.