Analysis of Situation in GEO Protected Region

Protected GEO region is defined by boundaries in inclination (-15° … +15°) and orbit radius (± 200 km with respect to true GEO height). There are nearly 390 operational satellites with orbits inside of this zone. In addition, there are nearly 280 officially catalogued objects with orbits completely inside of the protected zone and nearly 180 catalogued GEO satellites with orbits crossing the protected zone. Research made by the ISON network revealed more than 250 of new previously unknown objects in GEO region with orbits crossing the protected zone. Thus we already have significant amount of accurate information about real population of artificial objects in the most valuable part of GEO space. Based on information obtained by the ISON network we will describe up to the date situation with distribution of GEO objects inside the protected zone. Groups of operational satellites owned by different operators and working in close proximity will be characterized with examples constructed on the base of real measurement data. Uncontrolled objects (both large and small) crossing GEO protected region will be classified by long term evolution peculiarities. Special case of objects with high area-to-mass ratio will be discusses. Importance of more comprehensive deterministic study of the GEO protected region will be shown in our paper.