Ground-based
From any observatory
- Any site: latitude, longitude, altitude, or a stations file
- Atmospheric extinction, refraction near the horizon, twilight and moonlight
- Daylight and elevation limits, observable windows of the coming hours
Satellite photometry simulator
Predict the light of anything in orbit.
LightCurve renders satellites and rocket bodies on the GPU, integrates the sunlight they reflect toward your sensor — on the ground or in orbit — and turns it into apparent magnitude, signal-to-noise and light curves. Then it reads your measurements back — and explains them.
- European, hosted in the EU
- Computed in your browser
- Ground or space-based sensors
- Validated, documented physics
- Online, nothing to install
- On-premises on request
Live photometryGEO relay satellite · tumbling
Apparent magnitude7.40
SunDrag to move the observer3D model: NASALight curvePhase 63°Period 14 s
- 0.002mag
- from the analytic Lambertian sphere, up to 120° of phase
- 20DISCOS
- shapes from ESA’s object catalogue
- 13models
- spacecraft, stations and upper stages
- ±12h
- flash forecast for every flat facet
- 153tests
- automated checks of the physics
- 0install
- online in the browser, or on your premises
How it works
From the first photon to an answer.
Most tools stop at a magnitude. LightCurve keeps the whole chain in one place — the object, the geometry, the light, the sensor and the measurement — so every number can be traced back to its cause.
- 01
Model
Shape, materials and attitude: a reference model, a DISCOS shape or your CAD.
- 02
Place
Date, orbit, observer on the ground or in orbit, sky and atmosphere.
- 03
Render
A GPU render from the observer: per-pixel BRDF, self-shadowing, earthshine.
- 04
Observe
Apparent magnitude, extinction, sensor SNR, phase, 24-hour and spin curves.
- 05
Compare
Your measurements read back: period, attitude state, model fitted to the data.
The application
One screen, the whole photometric picture.
- A
A magnitude you can read
On a scale from Venus to Pluto, with the flux broken down by material and the limit of your sensor.
- B
What the sensor sees
The radiance image of the object, the 3D scene lit by the Sun and the orbital context.
- C
Curves, not snapshots
Phase, 24-hour and spin light curves recomputed in the background as you change anything.
Use cases
Built for the people who watch the sky — and the ones who fly in it.
Space domain awareness
Characterise objects from their light curves
Turn magnitudes into answers: is it stabilised, spinning or tumbling, how fast, how big — and does a physical model explain what your sensors measured?
See the use case
Satellite operators & manufacturers
Predict, then explain, the brightness of your satellite
From design review to anomaly investigation: how bright your spacecraft looks, where its glints come from, and what a change in its light curve means.
See the use case
Constellations & astronomy
Check a constellation against the night sky
The magnitude of every design option along real passes, with its uncertainty — to build satellites that astronomers can live with.
See the use case
Debris removal & in-orbit servicing
Know the tumble before the rendezvous
Estimate a target’s spin period, its axis and how they evolve, from ground photometry — to plan the approach and the capture of a non-cooperative object.
See the use case
Sensor design & networks
Size a sensor network before you buy it
SNR, limiting magnitude and saturation of real telescope and camera combinations, against the objects you must see — from the ground or from orbit.
See the use case
Catalogue monitoring
Watch a whole catalogue for behaviour changes
Months of tracks from many stations, turned into a report per object — behaviour, rotation trend, glints — and alerts the day something changes.
See the use case
AI & data science
Train classifiers on labelled light curves
Physically rendered, perfectly labelled synthetic light curves — shape, attitude state, period, axis, geometry, sensor noise — by the thousand.
See the use case
Research & teaching
Make satellite photometry visible
See why a satellite brightens or fades — phase angle, glint, shadow, attitude — live and in 3D, with physics you can check.
See the use caseGround or space
Sensors on the ground or in orbit.
The same physics for a telescope on a mountain and for a camera on a satellite: pick the vantage point, LightCurve changes the geometry, the sky and the constraints that go with it.
Space-based
From a satellite in orbit
- The sensor rides a satellite defined by its TLE, propagated with SGP4
- No atmosphere, a dark space background; line of sight hidden by the Earth
- Sun-exclusion angle and clearance above the Earth’s limb
Operations planAnalysis workspace
From one pass to years of tracks.
Load the photometric history of a catalogue. Each object gets a report — behaviour, rotation trend, glints, coverage, size — and you get an alert the day one of them stops behaving like itself.
- Behaviour classes for every track: constant, periodic, aperiodic, glint
- Spin-rate trend, drift and abrupt changes
- Sliding anomaly monitor with watch and confirmed levels
- Any track opens in the simulator with its measured geometry
Capabilities
Everything between the Sun and your detector.
Geometry and orbits
Every way of saying where the object is, from a single angle to a real orbit or a measured track.
Objects and materials
From a reference model to your own CAD, with surfaces that behave like the real ones.
Attitude and rotation
Controlled, spinning or tumbling: the motion that writes the light curve.
GPU photometric engine
The object is rendered from the observer, and every pixel carries reflected sunlight.
Sky and sensor, ground or space
From the magnitude above the atmosphere to what a given camera will record — on a mountain or on a satellite.
Curves and predictions
The whole behaviour of an object, not a single number.
Measurements and fitting
Real observations, read back and explained.
Automation and integration
The same engine, without the interface, inside your own chain.
Deployment and data
Online, nothing to install — or on your premises, offline.
Validation
Physics you can check.
LightCurve is built to be audited. The engine is tested against analytic results, the models against published magnitudes, and every assumption is written down.
- Lambertian sphere within 0.002 mag of the analytic formula up to 120° of phase, 0.005 mag at 150°
- Look angles identical to satellite.js; OEM ephemerides within 50 m of SGP4
- Validation set reproducing published magnitude definitions
- Monte-Carlo uncertainty on every simulated magnitude
- 153 automated tests and an open documentation of the models
A European solution
Made in Europe. Your data stay yours.
Space surveillance is a matter of trust. LightCurve is a European tool for European operators, agencies and armed forces: built on ESA’s DISCOS and the CCSDS standards, hosted in the EU, and designed so that your observations never leave your hands.
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Designed and built in Europe
A European publisher, with support in English and French, in your time zone.
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Hosted in the European Union
The service and its accounts run in data centres in the EU, operated by a European provider.
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Your data stay on your workstation
Measurements, orbits, CAD models and histories are processed in your browser. None of them is ever uploaded.
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Sovereign when it matters
GDPR by design. For classified or air-gapped work, LightCurve runs entirely on your premises, with no connection to us.
- Photometric computation
- your browser
- Measurements, CAD, histories
- your workstation — never uploaded
- Accounts and licences
- a data centre in the EU
- Classified, air-gapped work
- your premises (on-premises option)
Nothing else is stored: no measurement, no model, no result.
Plans
Discover. Simulate. Analyse.
01
Trial
Nothing comes in, nothing goes out
Evaluating the capabilities before buying
Free 7-day trial, on request
02Simulations
Your objects come in, your results go out
Engineers, sensor and mission designers
€12,000 / year Up to 10 users · excl. VAT
03Operations
Your measurements come in
Space surveillance operators and analysts
€24,000 / year Up to 10 users · excl. VAT
Compare the plans → Public university or laboratory? See the Academic offer.
Custom developments
Need something LightCurve doesn’t do yet?
We extend LightCurve for our customers: additional developments are made on request to fit your mission, your sensors and your workflow.
Discuss a development-
Your objects
Models of your spacecraft or targets from your CAD and specifications, with their materials and attitude laws.
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Your data
Readers and writers for your measurement, orbit and attitude formats, and connectors to your databases.
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Your analyses
New algorithms, indicators, reports and alerts, built around the questions you need answered.
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Your chain
Integration with your systems through the API and batch mode, on our hosting or on your premises.
FAQ
Questions we are often asked.
What exactly does LightCurve compute?
The apparent V magnitude of a satellite, a space station or a rocket body seen from a ground site or from another satellite, for a date, a geometry, a 3D model, its materials and its attitude. From it: the signal-to-noise ratio for a given sensor, and phase, 24-hour and rotation light curves.
How accurate is it?
The engine reproduces the analytic Lambertian sphere within 0.002 mag up to 120° of phase, and a validation set reproduces published magnitude definitions. For a real satellite, accuracy is set by how well the model and its materials describe it — which is why LightCurve fits them to your measurements and gives a Monte-Carlo uncertainty.
Is it online or on premises?
Online by default: LightCurve is a hosted web application, nothing to install. For specific needs — classified data, air-gapped networks — LightCurve also deploys on your own premises, as an add-on to any plan, and runs fully offline.
Where do my data go?
Nowhere: the computation runs in your browser, so your measurements, orbits, models and histories are read and processed locally, never uploaded. Our servers, in the European Union, only hold the accounts and their licences.
Is LightCurve a European solution?
Yes. LightCurve is designed, developed and supported in Europe, and the service is hosted in the European Union by a European provider. It builds on European and international standards — ESA’s DISCOS catalogue, CCSDS messages — and, for sovereign needs, it runs entirely on your premises.
Which formats does it read?
Measurements as CSV or CCSDS TDM, stations as CSV, orbits as TLE or CCSDS OEM, attitude as CCSDS AEM, models as glTF / GLB, OBJ or STL, BRDF tables as CSV, and DISCOS metadata exports.
Can it run without the interface?
Yes: a batch mode evaluates thousands of configurations from the command line, a JavaScript API drives the engine, and a dataset generator produces labelled light curves.
What do I need to run it?
A recent Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari with hardware acceleration (WebGL 2), an internet connection and your account — nothing to install. On-premises deployments run without any connection.
Can it be tailored to our mission?
Yes. On top of the plans, we make additional developments on request: models of your spacecraft, readers for your data formats, new analyses and alerts, integration with your systems.
How is it licensed?
In four plans — Trial, Academic, Simulations and Operations — as a subscription to the hosted service: each user signs in with their own account, and the plan of their organisation decides which modules they get. On-premises deployments use signed licence keys checked locally. Tell us about your use case and we will propose the right plan.
See your own objects in LightCurve.
A 30-minute session on your use case: your orbits, your sensors, your measurements if you have them.