Speaker
Description
In recent years, techniques from ergodic theory have been successfully applied to investigate a wide range of real-world phenomena. In this work, we explore how the spectral properties of transfer operators can provide insight into transport in space debris dynamics, with the aim of identifying regions that resist mixing over long timescales.
We consider an ensemble of small orbiting debris fragments and analyse their dynamics using a spherical Poincaré section centred on the Earth. The associated transfer operator is approximated by a finite-dimensional Markov operator via Ulam's method. We investigate its spectral properties and identify almost-invariant sets.
The theoretical framework is applied to a set of space debris in the lower region of medium Earth orbit (MEO) subject to the Earth’s gravitational field and its oblateness.
This is a joint work with Anna Maria Cherubini (Università del Salento) and Gary Froyland (University of New South Wales).