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IOP Publishing, The Planetary Science Journal, 7(3), p. 156, 2022

DOI: 10.3847/psj/ac7224

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International Asteroid Warning Network Timing Campaign: 2019 XS

Journal article published in 2022 by Davide Farnocchia ORCID, Vishnu Reddy ORCID, James M. Bauer ORCID, Elizabeth M. Warner ORCID, Marco Micheli ORCID, Matthew J. Payne ORCID, Tony Farnham ORCID, Michael S. Kelley, David D. Balam, Anatoly P. Barkov, Daniel Berteşteanu, Mirel Birlan ORCID, Bryce T. Bolin ORCID, Melissa J. Brucker ORCID, Luca Buzzi and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Abstract As part of the International Asteroid Warning Network's observational exercises, we conducted a campaign to observe near-Earth asteroid 2019 XS around its close approach to Earth on 2021 November 9. The goal of the campaign was to characterize errors in the observation times reported to the Minor Planet Center, which become an increasingly important consideration as astrometric accuracy improves and more fast-moving asteroids are observed. As part of the exercise, a total of 957 astrometric observations of 2019 XS during the encounter were reported and subsequently were analyzed to obtain the corresponding residuals. While the timing errors are typically smaller than 1 s, the reported times appear to be negatively biased, i.e., they are generally earlier than they should be. We also compared the observer-provided position uncertainty with the cross-track residuals, which are independent of timing errors. A large fraction of the estimated uncertainties appear to be optimistic, especially when <0.″2. We compiled individual reports for each observer to help identify and remove the root cause of any possible timing error and improve the uncertainty quantification process. We suggest possible sources of timing errors and describe a simple procedure to derive reliable, conservative position uncertainties.