Space borne photometry perturbations from solar light scattered by debris:a first estimate

Recent studies have shown that the sunlight reflected by satellites and lar ge space debris can affect the space borne observations. But the possible i mpartment caused by the scattering of the solar light by small debris has n ot been studied. This is the aim of this paper. From properties of such sma ll man-made particles, we study the solar flux they scatter when they cross the field of view of typical high photometric quality instruments. We comp ute the contribution of the fragments released on orbit by the host satelli te and of the debris already present into the background. A comparison betw een these results and the contribution of interplanetary dust (the Zodiacal Light) is obtained. Preliminary results show that these spurious fluxes ar e the main components of the noise level which affect the data and must be carefully subtracted from the scientific signal. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved