Analytics Products
Our products use a wide collection of interactive plots, charts, and tables to provide operators with the tools to make critical Go / No Go decisions. All analytics products are interactive, allowing the user to focus in on specific data, or filter results as needed. Additional information on how to utilize each interactive visualization has been compiled here for operator reference.
Visual Timelines
The Event Dashboard and Screening Results pages contain visual timelines that can display hundreds of identified close approaches, with either the nominal miss distance or the probability of collision highlighting the severity of the encounter. The marker colors are set by an organization's custom risk thresholds.
Table Listings
Tabular data can be sorted by any column header, while table filtering and NORAD ID search allows operators to quickly locate assets of interest. To change field formats, such as displaying RSO Common Name instead of NORAD ID, select the display format in the ⚙️ Chart Settings.
Plots and Graphs
Each CDM Report page contains detailed plots and graphs that operators can use when additional data is needed to make Go / No Go decisions. New analytics products are added regularly to satisfy operator needs and requests.
Timeseries data
As each CDM is received, the data contained is collected and displayed on timeseries charts. These charts allow for operators to quickly identify trends in the data as the event approaches TCA. All timeseries plots display Time as the X-axis, with one of the following risk metrics along the Y-axis:
For the Probability of Collision (Pc) risk metric, CDM data from third party providers is often calculated using simplifying assumptions. Pathfinder detects when these assumptions fail, and will verify the original values by recalculating Pc with an appropriate method for the conjunction geometry. The original, unverified Pc values can be displayed if desired.
For Miss Distance (MD) data, the positional uncertainty for each RIC-component appears as translucent fill, showing the size of the uncertainty relative to the nominal distance. The Total MD chart displays the Root-Sum-Square (RSS) of the diagonal components as the uncertainty fill.
The Time of Closest Approach (TCA) chart displays the difference in TCA from the previous CDM Report. When the conjunction geometry changes, the point of closest approach may shift, requiring a recalculation of the TCA. Most avoidance maneuvers will not shift the TCA more than a few seconds due to the enormous relative speeds.
📚 Learn more about Risk Metrics
Sensitivity plots
Sensitivity plots detail how sensitive a risk metric is to changing specific inputs.
The Dilution Region and Pc Sensitivity
The Dilution Region plot is a measure of the Pc sensitivity to covariance size. If the covariance is very large, the Pc risk value may be smaller (i.e. "diluted") than the true risk value. This plot displays Pc in log scale of covariance, and determines the theoretical Maximum Pc value for this conjunction geometry. When the Max Pc value appears for covariance smaller than the data in the CDM, then the Pc is said to be in the Dilution Region. In these cases, the true value of the Pc will exist somewhere within the bounds of the max and nominal Pc values displayed.
If the nominal Pc is to the left of the Maximum Pc, then the covariance is robust and the nominal Pc value is a true representation of the risk metric.
The Hard Body Radius Sensitivity
The HBR sensitivity plot is a measure of the Pc sensitivity to the combined HBR value from each asset. If either asset's HBR is incorrect, the Pc may be larger or smaller than the value in the CDM. Third party data providers may estimate HBR by radar cross section (RCS) and usually bin the RCS values into three generic size categories: 1, 3, or 5 m.
Organizations should verify the HBR values are correct for each asset in Asset Management > Spacecraft Physical Attributes.
B-Plane
The B-plane plot displays the conjunction plane normal to the relative velocity vector, with the combined HBR placed at the position of the primary relative to the secondary position at origin. If a maneuver has been selected from the mitigation component, pre- and post-maneuver B-planes will be available for comparison.