Maryland Weather: Space Station is flaring - Weather forecast: Meteorology and climate conditions in the Baltimore region from reporter Frank Roylance

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June 13, 2007

Space Station is flaring

Space Cadets! Those among us who enjoy watching the International Space Station fly over will be pleased to learn that the addition of another set of solar panels during this week's construction visit by the shuttle Atlantis and its crew has brightened the station considerably.

Some observers have even reported flaring - brief flashes of reflected sunlight - from the station's broadening expanse of flat solar panels and other structures on the station. Read more here.

Flaring is a phenomenon most familiar to observers of the Iridium fleet of communications satellites. Iridium flares are extraordinary sights, easily visible to the naked eye. For predictions of Iridium flares visible from your location, visit the Heavens Above website, configure it for your observation spot, and click on the Iridium flare link for predictions.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Sky Watching

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About Frank Roylance

Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1992, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page. Frank also answers readers’ weather queries for the newspaper and the blog. Frank Roylance retired in October 2011. Maryland Weather is now being updated by members of The Baltimore Sun staff

Follow @froylance on Twitter

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