Visual
SAT-Flare Tracker 3D
1.0 MENU TRACKING
By
means of this menu it is possible to model the satellites' surfaces and
to track the flares such surfaces generate. Moreover, when the Transit Mode
is active, each function can also be employed to track
satellite transits across either the Sun disk or the Moon disk (in
future releases also in front of arbitrary objects)
1.1 Model Satellite Surfaces
This menu opens a new window that contains the commands necessary to model the satellite's surfaces. Click here for more details.
1.2 Search Flares / Transits
This menu opens a new window that allows the user to run either a flare search or a transit search. Click here for more details.
1.3 Export Flares / Transits
Clicking
on this item, the currently plotted flare/transit track will be exported into
two text based files. The first file, whose name is Track.txt, will contains the coordinates of
the flare tracks in an easy readable format which is based on the following structure:
Generated by Visual SAT-Flare Tracker 3D - By Simone Corbellini
JD, Date, Time, Longitude E [deg], Geodetic Latitude N [deg], Sun-Mirror Angle [deg]
2455040,85846593
28/07/2009 08h36'11"
-68,56
-84,203 16,6
2455040,85853566
28/07/2009 08h36'17"
-66 -84,292 16,9
2455040,85860538
28/07/2009 08h36'23"
-63,35
-84,368 17,1
.....
When the Transit Mode is
active, the exported coordinates represent the ground locations where it is
possible to observe the satellite transiting in front the specified
celestial object. In that case, the last field Sun-Mirror Angle is meaningless.
The second file will contains the flare track in kml format so that the track can be displayed by menas of Google Maps / Google Earth or by means of others compatible applications. The predefined name for the second file is Track.kml.
To have this menu item active, it is necessary to activate the Show Flare/Transit Track option.
1.4 Find Cities along Track
By
clicking on this item, the cities in the flare/transit track
proximity will be extracted from the list of selected cities. Only the
cities less than 5 km far from the track will be reported in the output window. Please see the help about the City Window
to learn how to select cities from the database. Please note that in
this version it is not possible to change the maximum distance.

1.5 Show Satellite Flares / Shadows
By activating this options, either the reflected ray or the satellite shadow will be represented graphically accondingly to the Transit Mode option. If the Transit Mode
is disabled, the reflected ray represents the ray of light that is
reflected by the satellite's surfaces. The employed light source can be
the Sun only, or both the Sun and the Moon, depending on the status of
the Moon Light Flare/Shadow option. If the Transit Mode is active, the
plotted line represents the shadow of the satellite exposed to the same
light sources as in the case of the flares.
As an example, if both the Transit
Mode and the Moon Light Flare/Shadow are active, the plotted line
represents the satellite shadow of both the Sun and the Moon light. If
the observer is located where such line impacts the ground, the
satellite can be seen in front of the Sun or Moon disk. If both the
Transit Mode and the Moon Light Flare/Shadow are not active,
the plotted line represents the satellite flare. If the observer is
located where such line impacts the ground, a sun-light flare can be
observed.
The
following picture represents two flares generated at the same time by
the IRIDIUM 5 satellite. The green line represents a common sun-light
flare, while the yellow line represents a Moon-light flare (Moon Light Flare/Shadow option active). In addition, if the Mirror ID option in the Draw Setting
control panel is active, the name of the mirror that generates the ray
will be showed as well. In the case represented by Fig. 1, the
Sun-light flare is generated by the right main mission antenna, while
the Moon-light flare by the front main mission antenna.

1.6 Show Flare / Transit Tracks
By
activating this option, the ground locations where the flare/shadow
rays impact the ground along the satellite orbit will be graphically
represented. The plotting is performed for the same time interval
employed for the orbit plotting. Please see the Orbit Plotting frame
to learn how to set the time interval for the orbit plotting. The
following picture shows an example of ground flare track generated by
the IRIDIUM 5 satellite. In this case the track is represented for a
whole satellite's orbit.

1.7 Include Day-Time Flares
By enabling this option, the track obtained by the previous Show Flare/Transit Track
function will be generated also for the locations where the event
occurs during day-time hours. If this option is not active, the
track will be represented only for those locations where the event
occurs with the sun under the local horizon. Actually, the
minimum Sun elevation can be set by the user by mean of the Twilight Window.
1.8 Show Flaring Surface ID
When
this option is checked, the name of the flaring surface is showed next
to each flare representation. The name of the surface is assigned
during the creation of the surface in the satellite model. Please see
the Mirror ID field into the Satellite Surface Modelling window for more details.
1.9 Moon light Flare / Shadow
When
this option is checked, the Moon is used as the light source for both
the calculation of flares and transits. Please note that, when this
option is active, also the Sun is used as light source for Flare and
Shadow representation, however, only the Moon is used by any other
algorithms, such as the flare search. This means that only Moon-light
flares / transits will be found with this option active.
BACK
By
Simone Corbellini
