| A rich population of "comets" in the flattened annulus beyond Neptune, known as the Kuiper Belt, has been inferred and more than four hundred of its larger members have been directly observed to date (Jewitt 1999 [14]). The Taiwanese American Occultation Survey (TAOS), a collaboration between the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, Academia Sinica and National Central University, will estimate directly the number of comets in the Kuiper Belt, by measuring the rate of occultations of stars by these objects, using an array of three to four 20in wide-field robotic telescopes. Some 3,000 stars will be monitored, resulting in about 300 million photometric measurements per night. Since the size distribution of these comets is unknown for cometary radii ∼20 km, estimated event rates range from 10 to 4000 a year. The TAOS survey will help characterize the Kuiper Belt, which is useful to constrain theories regarding the origin of our Solar System. To optimize the success of TAOS, we have used elaborate simulations and statistical methods to investigate opposing methods of gathering and processing the data, resulting in different detection schemes, with the aim of maximizing the detection rate. The consequent estimated detection efficiencies will be used to guide the choice of various operational parameters determining the mode of actual observation when the telescopes come on line and begin routine observation. |
