RE: More on Iridium flares

Dorreman, Bram (Bram.Dorreman@nl.origin-it.com)
Mon, 27 Oct 1997 15:54:08 +0100

Paul,
	You were lucky. I "played truant" last week once for about 20 minutes
to try to see a dailight flare. But just at the very moment there was no
hole in the clouds. Chris, my son, was about 15 miles south of me and
experienced his first daylight flare. 

>----------
>From: 	MALEY, PAUL D. (JSC-DO)[SMTP:paul.d.maley1@jsc.nasa.gov]
>Sent: 	maandag 27 oktober 1997 15:27
>To: 	'SEESAT-L'
>Subject: 	More on Iridium flares
>
>As Bjoern points out, the Iridiums can be in lower parking orbits and still
>flare. My suggestion was to look at the operational mean motion and assume
>that once achieved, flaring is very likely to be guaranteed.
>
>My first daylight Iridium flare was detected this weekend.  Using 1:24,000
>USGS maps and SKYSAT and IRIDFLAR in tandem, I found a place nearby where a
>near zero mirror angle was predicted for Oct. 25 at 23:22UTC. It had been
>totally cloudy all day and within 15 minutes of flare  time the 3 layers of
>clouds broke in the area of a predicted flare for Iridium 13 (elevation 40,
>azimuth 207) with the sun 3 degrees above the horizon. I easily spotted the
>flare for 2 or 3 seconds as it was in a marginally clear spot between two
>banks of cirrus clouds.  The sky clouded over within 20 minutes after the
>flare.  No way to estimate brightness as there were no other objects
>visible, not even the sun.
>
>
>Paul D. Maley
>United Space Alliance
>DO5/Cargo Operations
>NASA Johnson Space Center
>Houston TX 77058 USA
>
>phone: 281-244-0208
>email:      paul.d.maley1@jsc.nasa.gov
>latitude 29.5378 north; longitude 95.0868 west; altitude 6 m
>
>
>