Hi Rod (and list), Thanks for your latest report observation on the double flare from Iridium 35 (#24966) on the evening of 05 March. I'm beginning to get the impression that these extra flares are solar-panel related, as the LVLH pointing vector for whatever surface (or surfaces) that are causing the extra flare is changing from night to night. For example, the following list gives the satellite's local pointing normals corresponding to the observed extra flares for Rod's location: 2 Mar 2001 IR36 19:40:30 m-3.4 az 129.7, el -35.9 3 Mar 2001 IR 7 19:34:10 m+3 az 127.1, el -36.0 3 Mar 2001 IR51 19:34:30 m-2 az 126.7, el -35.9 4 Mar 2001 IR61 19:37:05 m+1 az 128.4, el -38.5 5 Mar 2001 IR35 19:30:40 m+0 az 124.1, el -39.5 Michael Gill also observed this last flare from Iridium 35 from a slightly different location: 5 Mar 2001 IR35 19:30:50 m-3 az 123.3, el -38.3 From these 6 data points, there is no direct correlation between the secondary glint brightness and the derived az/el of the "effective" surface normal. This means one of two things: either the surface causing the glint is not stationary from night to night with respect to the satellite body coordinate system (e.g. a moving solar panel, or crosslink antenna), or the glint is caused by a multiple reflection. So keep those extra glint observations coming! In the meantime, I'll work on some double-bounce geometries to see if any reasonable solutions pop out. Best, Rob ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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