Photometric characterization of Starlink satellite tracklets using RGB filters

The number of satellites orbiting the Earth has significantly increased and large constellations based on thousands of satellites are currently being designed and operated. Among them the Starlink project, owned by SpaceX, is in advanced phase. The massive presence of orbiting objects could have a negative impact on astronomical research. In the case of observations with long exposure times and/or wide field of view (FoV), numerous bright tracklets, caused by the reflection of sunlight on a transiting satellite, may appear in the images. For this reason, the Sapienza Space Systems and Space Surveillance Laboratory (S5Lab), which has been involved in research on space debris and space surveillance for many years, started a new research project on the photometric characterization of some satellites of the Starlink project, using red, green and blue filters and comparing the results with observations performed without filters in order to analyze the features of the transit of Starlink satellites. The observations will stress the high complexity of the Starlink satellites reflection pattern, producing interesting results concerned with the used filters and the observation geometry.