133112 20260415073250.0 doi 10.1016/j.asr.2024.01.029 sideral 137782 ART-2024-137782 eng Lacruz, Elvis Determining leaders in a cloud of space debris 2024 Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted A methodology has been devised to compute the maximum of the minimum distances between different objects in a space debris cloud. By using the orbital information of the pieces that make up the cloud, a threshold distance is defined to determine which pieces are close enough to each other. The closest pieces are then considered associated objects, and those pieces of debris that have the most associated objects are identified as the leaders of the cloud. Once the leaders of a debris cloud are identified, the orbital dynamics of those leaders can provide preliminary information about the dynamics of their associated objects. The methodology was applied to a specific space debris cloud composed of 255 cataloged pieces, identifying four leaders which have 43 associated objects. Thus, the dynamics of only four pieces of space debris (0.015% of the cloud) are similar to the dynamics of 43 pieces of debris (17% of the cloud). This methodology could be extrapolated to other debris clouds, making the search for leaders a simple and rapid tool. info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/E24-23R info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2020-117066GB-I00 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess by-nc-nd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.es 2.8 2024 ENGINEERING, AEROSPACE 12 / 55 = 0.218 2024 Q1 T1 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS 30 / 84 = 0.357 2024 Q2 T2 GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 94 / 258 = 0.364 2024 Q2 T2 METEOROLOGY & ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES 57 / 111 = 0.514 2024 Q3 T2 0.704 2024 Aerospace Engineering 2024 Q1 Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) 2024 Q1 Geophysics 2024 Q2 Space and Planetary Science 2024 Q2 Astronomy and Astrophysics 2024 Q2 Atmospheric Science 2024 Q2 5.5 2024 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion (orcid)0000-0002-7620-4523 Casanova, Daniel 73, 8 (2024), 4269-4283 Adv. space res. Advances in Space Research 0273-1177 13345996 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/133112/files/texto_completo.pdf Postprint info:eu-repo/date/embargoEnd/2026-04-15 1961956 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/133112/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Postprint info:eu-repo/date/embargoEnd/2026-04-15 oai:zaguan.unizar.es:133112 articulos driver 2026-02-17-20:24:14 ARTICLE