Iridflar 1.4
Neil Clifford (clifford@astro.ox.ac.uk)
Tue, 2 Dec 1997 12:16:57 +0000 (GMT)
Craig Cholar scribbles:
>A good portion of the subscribers like watching the flares, but use
>platforms such as Macs or Unix systems which currently lack an Iridium
>flare prediction program, so I run predictions for them.
Iridflar runs fine on my linux box (in dosemu) :-) [as does my windoze
planetarium under wine]
Cue to announce: Iridflar version 1.4
Now available in maths co-processor/no co-processor versions at the
usual place:
http://www.satellite.eu.org/programs/iridflar.zip
http://www.satellite.eu.org/programs/flare_nc.zip
The changelog is as follows (from Rob Matson):
A bug bug has been discovered which causes IRIDFLAR to get caught
in an endless loop if a satellite happens to enter the earth's umbra
shortly after a flare peak (and while still above the observer's
horizon). This bug can also cause IRIDFLAR to miss flares under
other special circumstances. Bug has been found and fixed.
Solar azimuth added to file output.
Peak magnitude added to screen output and verbose file output.
Standard magnitude removed from screen output; only appears now in
verbose file output.
Headers to output file have been expanded for easier understanding.
Minor bug fixed in the brief file output when "Does not intersect"
is supposed to appear. Now replaced with "No intersection".
If seconds portion of time is less than 10, is padded with zero.
Magnitudes reported in brief-format output file now rounded to the
nearest integer magnitude (instead of truncated).
Formula for predicted magnitude versus mirror angle has been modified
slightly based on observed flare magnitudes. Also, IRIDFLAR now
accurately models the radiance distribution of the solar disk (i.e.,
the center of the disk is brighter than the limb). This causes
predicted flare magnitudes to continue to brighten as the flare
angle drops below 0.25 degrees.
regards,
--
Neil Clifford <neil@satellite.eu.org>
http://www.satellite.eu.org/satintro.html