Standard magnitudes for Meteor 2 & 3 satellites
Rainer Kracht (R.Kracht@t-online.de)
Thu, 4 Jan 96 18:59 +0100
Standard magnitudes for Meteor 2 & 3 satellites
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From Russell's observations (1980 Jan 01 to 1995 Nov 30) I have derived
standard magnitudes (1000 km, 90 deg) for 15 Meteor 2 and 1 Meteor 3
satellites. There are only few observations (marked steady and in pairs)
for these satellites. So the derived standard magnitudes are rather
uncertain.
METEOR 2-01 1975-064A 8 4.59 +/- 0.63 0.0118 +/- 0.0117
METEOR 2-02 1977-002A 4 3.78 +/- 1.45 -0.0098 +/- 0.0324
METEOR 2-03 1977-117A 2 3.30 0.0026
COSMOS 1066 1978-121A 4 6.96 +/- 0.42 0.0015 +/- 0.0255
METEOR 2-04 1979-021A 0
METEOR 2-05 1979-095A 2 5.08 0.0471
METEOR 2-06 1980-073A 8 7.12 +/- 1.31 0.0645 +/- 0.0366
METEOR 2-07 1981-043A 4 6.32 +/- 2.52 0.0359 +/- 0.0569
METEOR 2-08 1982-025A 7 6.23 +/- 0.58 0.0470 +/- 0.0145
METEOR 2-09 1982-116A 10 5.43 +/- 0.55 0.0024 +/- 0.0150
METEOR 2-10 1983-109A 15 4.26 +/- 0.51 0.0017 +/- 0.0112
METEOR 2-11 1984-072A 0
METEOR 2-12 1985-013A 2 6.19 0.0595
METEOR 2-13 1985-119A 4 4.52 +/- 0.27 0.0326 +/- 0.0067
METEOR 2-14 1986-039A 2 5.23 -0.0302
METEOR 2-15 1987-001A 0
METEOR 2-16 1987-068A 0
METEOR 2-17 1988-005A 2 5.80 0.0009
METEOR 2-18 1989-018A 0
METEOR 2-19 1990-057A 0
METEOR 2-20 1990-086A 2 4.98 -0.0284
METEOR 2-21 1993-055A 0
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ALL 72 5.29 +/- 0.22 0.0178 +/- 0.0054
The RAE-Tables have for Meteor 2-01 to 2-12:
Shape and weight (kg): Cylinder + 2 vanes, 2750?
Size (m) : 5 long?, 1.5 dia?
World Wide Launches has for Meteor 2-21:
"Satellite is a cylinder , approximately 1.4 metres diameter, 4.2 metres
long with two vanes of solar panels, each 2 metres x 10 metres."
Mass (kg) 2000?
METEOR 3-01 1985-100A 4 5.73 +/- 0.14 0.0235 +/- 0.0062
The RAE-Tables have for Meteor 3 satellites:
Shape and weight (kg): Cylinder + 2 vanes, 2215
Size (m) : 4.20 long, 1.40 dia
It seems that sizes and shapes of all Meteor satellites (from early
Meteor-Cosmos to Meteor 3) are similar. So a standard magnitude of 5.8
(derived from 837 observations of Meteor 1 satellites) could be used
for all Meteor's. The best observed satellite is Meteor 1-28 (77-57A)
with 346 observations and a standard magnitude of 6.2.
column 1 : name
column 2 : international designation
column 3 : number of observations
column 4 : standard magnitude
column 5 : phase coefficient
Rainer Kracht 1996 Jan 04
0412188960-0001@t-online.de
R.Kracht@t-online.de