Thank you. -------------- Original message -------------- From: Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com>

--- steve.nielsen@comcast.net wrote:

...

Does anyone know what these images were taken from? How high was it?

Per the EMUSAT site: "The main operational location for Meteosat is over the Equator, at 0° longitude. This is where the prime Meteosat satellite operates, . . ."

Per Wikipedia: "A geostationary orbit (GSO) is a circular orbit directly above the Earth's equator (0º latitude). Geosynchronous and geostationary orbits were first popularised by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in 1945 as useful orbits for communications satellites. As a result they are sometimes referred to as Clarke orbits. Similarly, the Clarke Belt is the part of space approximately 35,786 km above mean sea level in the plane of the equator where near-geostationary orbits may be achieved. . . . The satellite orbits in the direction of the Earth's rotation, at an altitude of approximately 35,786 km (22,240 statute miles) above ground."

...

There are 3 flashes of light going from right to left in the middle of the picture. It decreases in brightness as it goes to the left. What caused the flashes? A satellite?

My guess is the same as yours. The flashes are caused by the Sun reflecting off low-earth orbit satellites moving in the opposite orbit direction of the MeteoSat. It's the space-based analogy to the Iridium satellite flashes that we commonly see at night.

- Canopus56

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