MEASUREMENTS.

Abstract

Concerning the measurements required for a better definition of the debris environment, the author chose to divide the debris population into large and small regimes. Large debris includes 10 centimeters. The source of data for this size range are the existing NORAD optical and radar systems. The regime of small debris objects is chosen to be the range from about 1mm to 10cm. There is no source of data for this size range. Direct measurements of the small debris population from ground based systems and satellite based systems are concernable. Indirect measurements could also give information about this size range. These are laboratory measurements designed to give some reality to models which estimate the number of particles produced from an explosion or an impact.