Robert Airey
About me
I'm Robert, and I am a 4th Year PhD student supervised by Dr Paul ChoteLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new win. (2022-2026) in the Centre for Space Domain Awareness (CSDA) group within the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick.
I completed an MPhys in Astrophysics at the University of Liverpool (2018-2022)
Research
My PhD research focuses on the optical characterisation of Resident Space Objects (RSOs), particularly those in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), using ground-based observations. Central to this work is the use of multi-colour photometric observations from the STING instrument, which allow variations in reflected light to be measured across different optical bands and used to infer satellite surface materials, structural components, orientation and operational modes.
The temporal and spectral structure of these light curves is used to identify characteristic photometric signatures associated with satellite behaviour and operational states, contributing to improved passive optical capabilities for space domain awareness.
Teaching
| PX159 - Python Programming Workshop | Demonstrator | (24/25) |
| PX281 - Computational Physics | Demonstrator | (22/23), (23/24) |
| PX451 - Astrophysics Laboratory III | Demonstrator | (22/23), (23/24), (24/25) |
Conferences & Summer Schools
|
STFC Summer school: Space Technology: Applications in Science and Industry
|
11-15 Sep 2023 Durham University, UK |
Summer School |
| National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) - "A comprehensive survey of the GEO-belt using simultaneous four-colour observations with STING" | 7-11 Jul 2025 Durham University, UK | Poster |
|
Operating in the Future Electromagnetic Environment Symposium (OFEME) - "Constraining the Attitudes of RSOs from Photometric measurements" |
18-20 Nov 2025 Newport, UK | Talk |
Observing Proposals
Co-I:
| Liverpool Telescope (LT) - MOPTOP | 2023B (10h) | Successful | MOPTOP linear polarimetry of defunct geostationary (graveyard-orbit) satellites, with simultaneous high cadence CLASP and STING (Multi-band) photometry, to investigate spin states and the Yarkovsky–O’Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack (YORP) effect |
| Liverpool Telescope (LT) - MOPTOP | 2024B (4h) | Successful | MOPTOP linear polarimetry of active geostationary satellites during Earth-shadow ingress/egress, with simultaneous high cadence CLASP and STING (Multi-band) photometry, to probe the atmospheric scattering properties of the upper atmosphere |
Publications
First Author
Airey et al. (2025) - "A comprehensive survey of the GEO-belt using simultaneous four-colour observations with STING"
Airey et al. (2025) - "Lord of the (sub-)Rings : Mapping the surface reflectance and spin-axis of Ajisai"
Contributing
Blake et al. (2023) - "Exploring SDA Sensor Architectures for the Surveillance of Geosynchronous Spacecraft"
Cooke et al. (2023) - "Simulated recovery of LEO objects using sCMOS blind stacking"
Meredith et al. (2023) - "Tracking Merged Objects within Non-Resolved Imagery"
Shrive et al. (2024) - "Classifying LEO satellite platforms with boosted decision trees"
Chote et al. (2025) - "High-precision light curves of geostationary objects: The PHANTOM ECHOES 2 RPO campaign"