Speaker
Description
The United Nations established the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), in 2013 to coordinate worldwide organizations involved in detection, tracking, and characterization of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). In addition, developing well-defined communication plans and protocols to assist governments in the analysis of asteroid and comet impact consequences and in the planning of mitigation responses are also part of the IAWN's mandate. The IAWN conducts campaigns to test the operational readiness of a global coalition of observers, modelers, and decision makers to tackle a potential NEO impact hazard. Since 2017, the IAWN has conducted six exercises, four of which focused on planetary defense readiness and near-Earth asteroid (NEA) characterization, and two on improving the timing of astrometric observations that form the bedrock of NEO detection and tracking. Key findings from these campaigns include NEA characterization not being at the same operational readiness level as astrometry and hazard modeling; binary nature of the target NEA having very little effect on the impact risk on the ground; the need to reduce timing errors at some observatories as they can result in significant systematic errors that bias the trajectory estimate. Our timing campaigns showed us that astrometric timing errors are typically less than one second. However, there is an excess of negative values, i.e., the reported times for NEO positions were generally biased toward early values rather than being on time or ahead. We worked with individual observers to offer mitigation solutions to remedy the timing errors so that overall astrometric quality across the planetary defense community could be improved. The findings from each campaign, which have been published in peer-reviewed journals, led to the development of goals for subsequent exercises and helped improve the overall readiness of global planetary defense efforts.