More precisely, the term 'Iridium flare' refers specifically to a flare produced by the Iridium series of communication satellites, whose large, reflective, panel-like antennae cause these very bright, predictable flares. An Iridium Flare is caused by the Iridium constellation with 66 active telecommunication satellites in low Earth orbit are known to cause the brightest.
You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.Īdditional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.Īlso Available: Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. An Iridium flare or satellite flare is a flash of light in the sky caused by sunlight reflected off an artificial satellite. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only. Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public.
Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).Here in this image Iridium satellite number 35 lit up the predawn sky west of Boston, as Sky & Telescope senior editor and TWAN team member, Dennis di Cicco, waited with his camera, taking a 10-minute exposure on Fujichrome 100 slide film through an 80-mm lens. When not flaring, the satellites are often visible crossing the night sky at a typical magnitude of 6, similar to a dim star. However this flashing has been also a problem for serious deep sky astronomical study, as the flares occasionally disturb observations. To an observer this looks like an extremely bright flare in the sky with duration of a few seconds. They create predictable and quickly moving illuminated spots of about 10 km diameter. An Iridium flare is a reflection of sunlight from an Iridium satellite towards us on the ground. With highly reflecting triple antennas, the Iridium communication satellites create the brightest flares in the night sky, some bright enough to illuminate night landscape for a short time. Satellite flare or satellite glint is the phenomenon caused by the reflective surfaces on satellites (such as antennas or solar panels) reflecting sunlight directly onto the Earth below and appearing as a brief, bright “flare”.