# Statistical Analysis of Astrometric Errors for the Most Productive Asteroid Surveys

## TL;DR

This paper analyzes astrometric errors in major asteroid surveys, revealing factors affecting accuracy and proposing a new weighting scheme for improved orbit determination.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel weighting scheme based on statistical analysis that enhances asteroid orbit predictions and robustness against outliers.

## Key findings

- Astrometric errors increase for faint observations.
- Some stations improved their astrometric quality over time.
- The new weighting scheme results in more reliable ephemeris predictions.

## Abstract

We performed a statistical analysis of the astrometric errors for the major asteroid surveys. We analyzed the astrometric residuals as a function of observation epoch, observed brightness and rate of motion, finding that astrometric errors are larger for faint observations and some stations improved their astrometric quality over time. Based on this statistical analysis we develop a new weighting scheme to be used when performing asteroid orbit determination. The proposed weights result in ephemeris predictions that can be conservative by a factor as large as 1.5. However, the new scheme is more robust with respect to outliers and better handles faint detections.