Iridium Outbreak

Did you know that for 10 seconds, about 2 times a day, a flash appears in the sky? Sometimes it is so strong and bright that it can not be overlooked! This is an outbreak of Iridium.

Iridium is a satellite telephone operator, he has 66 satellites that cover the entire surface of the Earth.

The flash is explained by the reflection of the rays of the sun from the antennas of the Iridium satellites, and since the position of the satellites is known and known very precisely, we can calculate when, where, with what force, what time the next flash will occur! For this there are a number of services and programs:

Web service Heavens Above

First you need to set your location. You have 3 ways:

1. "Select from map" - indicate on the map (you must also specify the time zone)
2. “From database” - choose from the list on the map
3. “Edit manually” - enter manually (coordinates)

I want to add that it is better to indicate the location on the map, because even a difference of 1 kilometer is significant, and you may not see the flash (1 minute earlier or later). And if you specify your exact location, you will get a very accurate flash schedule (+ - 1 second).
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After you have specified your coordinates, find the inscription “Iridium Flares” - under it there are 4 points:

1. “Next 24 hrs” - flash schedule for 24 hours ahead
2. “Next 7 days” - flash schedule for 7 days ahead
3. "Previous 48 hrs" - flash history 48 hours ago
4. “Daytime flares for 7 days” - Flash schedules that can be seen even during the day! These are flashes whose Intensity is less than -7 (i.e. -7, -8, -9). The maximum flash power is -9.5

Now let's “decipher” the outbreak schedule, using the example of Minsk, Belarus. I chose “Next 7 days” - the outbreak schedule for 7 days ahead:



As can be seen from the picture, the next flash will be on July 28 at 10:49:20 Minsk time.
Decipher the columns:

• Date - flash date
• Local Time - local flash time.
• Intensity (Mag) - intensity (power) of the flash. The smaller the value, the stronger the flash. -9.5 - maximum flash power
• Alt. - “flash height” above the horizon level. For example, 25 ° - low above the horizon, 80 ° - almost at the top
• Azimuth - where the flash will be:
  
  • 0 ° - exactly in the north
  • 90 ° - in the east
  • 180 ° - in the south
  • 270 ° - in the west, in brackets the decoding of degrees is given
  Decryption for decoding in brackets:
  
  • N - North - North
  • E - East - East
  • S - South - South
  • W - West - West
  
  Heavens Above gives us this “hint” (in the form of decoding of corners and pictures):
  N (0 °), NNE (22.5 °), NE (45 °), ENE (67.5 °), E (90 °);
  ESE (112.5 °), SE (135 °), SSE (157.5 °), S (180 °);
  SSW (202.5 °), SW (225 °), WSW (247.5 °), W (270 °);
  WNW (292.5 °), NW (315 °), NNW (337.5 °);
  

• Distance to flare center- distance to the center of the flash
• Intensity at flare center (Mag.) - flash intensity at its center
• Satellite - the number of the satellite, from which you will see a flash reflection

Also on this site you can find many different interesting things, for example, on the main page on the right - the position of the ISS (ISS) at the moment.

Android application "Iridium Flare Forecast"

The application is free, immediately share a link to the market .

The application allows you to do the same as the Heavens Above web site, + to that it only works with an active connection to the Internet. The application allows you to determine your location by GPS / GSM-towers and get a list of the nearest Iridium flares and ISS spans (ISS).

I will give a couple of screenshots:






You can decipher the location of the flash in the same way as on the website, all the values ​​are the same.

At leisure, watch the flashes, it is very interesting and beautiful!