Initial information content analysis of shadow imaging of GEO satellites

Space Domain Awareness (SDA) is important for understanding the space environment to ensure safe operation of space missions. SDA activities include the detection, identification, tracking and characterizing of artificial satellites. SDA objectives rely greatly on the information that can be gained from ground-based sensors, such as optical telescopes. A space object may be detected by a telescope when it passes in front of a star. There have been studies of how the shadow cast to Earth from a star can be interpreted for important data, referred to as Shadow Imaging. Herein we discuss the usage of information theoretic methods to understand the limitations of stellar Shadow Imaging. These methods measure the information content in the irradiance pattern, as seen by a terrestrial observer, from the shadow cast by the geosynchronous space object passing in front of a stellar source.