- #1
jojotank
- 13
- 0
Hello.
I have some question about iridium flares. My brains can' t process the whole picture.
Iridium panell works like a mirror and reflects quite some percantege of light to the Earth's surface, where it makes a bright spot with quite a big radeous. An observer sees a bright spot in the sky which is gradually becoming larger and then again slower, until you don t see it anymore. I can t understand why.
Why don' t we see just a momentary flash? Similar to when somone is annoying us with a watch which reflects sunlight into our eyes.
I was thinking that maybe it is because of rotation of the panell. I understand that if the angle of incidence is big, then the intensity will be smaller (changing with cosine function right ?). But then i thought that just a small change in the angle of panell would move this spot far away of the observer's position.
I was also thinking that it may have something to do with atmosphere, scattering of light and all. But i don't believe that would be the case.
My conclusion is that this spot on Earth surface is not of the same intensity - getting smaller towards the edges. But i don' t understand why.
I would be so glad if someone explains it a bit. I can't stand this enigma anymore :)
Thank you so much, and sorry for my english.
I have some question about iridium flares. My brains can' t process the whole picture.
Iridium panell works like a mirror and reflects quite some percantege of light to the Earth's surface, where it makes a bright spot with quite a big radeous. An observer sees a bright spot in the sky which is gradually becoming larger and then again slower, until you don t see it anymore. I can t understand why.
Why don' t we see just a momentary flash? Similar to when somone is annoying us with a watch which reflects sunlight into our eyes.
I was thinking that maybe it is because of rotation of the panell. I understand that if the angle of incidence is big, then the intensity will be smaller (changing with cosine function right ?). But then i thought that just a small change in the angle of panell would move this spot far away of the observer's position.
I was also thinking that it may have something to do with atmosphere, scattering of light and all. But i don't believe that would be the case.
My conclusion is that this spot on Earth surface is not of the same intensity - getting smaller towards the edges. But i don' t understand why.
I would be so glad if someone explains it a bit. I can't stand this enigma anymore :)
Thank you so much, and sorry for my english.