Extreme Flaring of Starlink Satellites

Fuente: arXiv
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mallama, Anthony, Cole, Richard E.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Mallama, Anthony
Cole, Richard E.
author_facet Mallama, Anthony
Cole, Richard E.
contents Starlink satellites can become extremely bright when sunlight reflects specularly to an observer on the ground. The observed brightness of such flares is consistent with a bidirectional reflectance function of the Starlink satellite chassis. These findings are applied to the case of an extreme flare that was reported as an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena by the pilots of two commercial aircraft.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_13091
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Extreme Flaring of Starlink Satellites
Mallama, Anthony
Cole, Richard E.
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Starlink satellites can become extremely bright when sunlight reflects specularly to an observer on the ground. The observed brightness of such flares is consistent with a bidirectional reflectance function of the Starlink satellite chassis. These findings are applied to the case of an extreme flare that was reported as an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena by the pilots of two commercial aircraft.
title Extreme Flaring of Starlink Satellites
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.13091