the current photometric models. An immediate, coordinated, ongoing observational survey of LEOsats in different orbital configurations is therefore essential.
1.1. Introducing SatHub
We propose a “one-stop shop” to enable astronomers, community members, satellite operators, other interested groups, and the public to work together more effectively. This initiative, SatHub, will serve as a central coordination hub for characterizing the LEOsat population’s reflectivity, emission properties, positions/trajectories, and other properties over time. It will enable astronomers to build appropriate data processing pipelines to account for the effects on astronomical science programs, characterize both slow and rapidly varying brightness changes over time, and measure the effectiveness of experimental mitigations. As a global endeavor, SatHub will incorporate observations from a variety of facilities spread over latitude and longitude to capture Sun-angle-dependent effects, enable collaboration and feedback between multiple stakeholders, and encourage uniform observing and data reduction protocols alongside accessible data products and training opportunities.
To implement this, one of the first priorities for the forthcoming IAU Centre should be establishing a SatHub website. Different sections of the website can subsequently be built out to address different goals, as illustrated in Figure 1. The SatHub umbrella will encompass a user-friendly, accessible, and responsive interface with tools for accessing public data products and satellite orbital solutions, documented open source software to plan and process (or avoid) satellite observations, a curriculum to empower observers of all backgrounds to meaningfully contribute, and a real-time collaboration center. This latter portion will include a discussion forum, a means to request specific observations (e.g., for a satellite operator seeking to test the brightness of a new design), and a means to inform the community of the latest brightness measurements while they are still a work in progress and once they are published.
