Laser Ranging Data Processing Engine at the Expert Centre for Space Safety

To pave the way towards a sustainable use of the outer space, the Expert Centre for Space Safety (ExpCen) coordinates data acquisition and exchange for passive and active sensors operating in different spectral regions, and configurations, aiming at diverse target objects. Within the optical regime, ongoing efforts address the validation and qualification (V&Q) of passive optical and space debris laser ranging sensors, which is an integral service that comprises the interfacing and tasking of the candidate sensor, in addition to retrieving and post-processing the acquired observations to ensure the compliance with predefined quality metrics. The candidate sensors are not only certified for participating in future campaigns, after successful completion of V&Q, but also are provided with technical support and system-related feedback to successfully complete the V&Q.
In this presentation, we will describe the architecture of the ExpCen laser ranging processing engine, including design, algorithms and future improvements. We highlight the modularity of our engine for its different uses including the V&Q of space debris lasers systems operating under different configurations. Moreover, we demonstrate the functionality of the tool using real data acquired by different laser ranging systems from the ExpCen sensor pool.