I finally saw my first bright flare from Metop (2006-044A ) at 20:00:48 UTC, 6-APR-07 which was produced by the left forward looking ASCAT (radar scatterometer) antenna. The timing was as expected but the flare was brighter (at about mag -2) as I had calculated. It looks like the pitch angle (of that antenna) is more like -47.5 deg rather than -47 deg as I had thought. (Although I had access to relevant technical documentation for Metop this particular angle was not given explicitly in it and I had to measure it from a small diagram - so it had an uncertanity of about 1 deg.) I'll have to chew over the data again (there have been a few more observations of Metop-flares in Germany) and then over the next few days I will post some predictions on this list and hopefully we are getting more observations to fine-tune the calculation. Metop ASCAT-flares are quite similar to Iridium flares but due to the smaller area of the antenna and the slightly greater distance they probably won't get brighter that mag -6. Don't get too exited about it - there is just one such satellite up there and an observer can realistically expect just one or two such flares per month during the summer half of the year. Gerhard HOLTKAMP Darmstadt, Germany 49.8822 N, 8.6558 E ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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