Association of Short-Arc Optical Tracks via the Direct Bayesian Admissible Region: Theory and Application

The direct Bayesian admissible region approach is an a priori state free measurement association and initial orbit determination technique for optical tracks. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach that appends a least squares estimator to the direct Bayesian method. We test this approach on measurements taken at the Zimmerwald Observatory of the Astronomical Institute at the University of Bern. Over half of the association pairs agree with conventional geometric track correlation and least squares techniques. Furthermore, the number of false positive solutions is cut by more than half compared to direct Bayesian only.