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Satellite Images of Y2K Fireworks?
Hanno asks: "While watching a summary of the global new year's eve 2000 celebrations on CNN, I was wondering if those celebrations were visible from space. News reports claim that those were the biggest fireworks and light shows in history. So for a space observer, it must have been interesting to watch a wave of fireworks "moving" from timezone to timezone. I guess that some folks from the various military, research and commercial satellite organizations are reading here. So if you have any, "please post pics" I'd love to see a summary of Y2K, as seen from space." Now this would be really cool to see. Did anyone have their spy eyes on for the new year?
Several times I've been above fireworks shows in an airplane, and the fireworks just are not that spectacular from above.
:-)
The displays are designed for maximum effect of the audience on the ground near the show, both for lighting and acoustic effects. When viewed from a few miles away and a few thousand feet in altitude, the fireworks don't appear much brighter than all the city lights around them. And the effects only last a few seconds at a time.
There is an international pyrotechnics festival every summer on the French riviera, which allows nuts^H^H^H^Hfans like myself to watch fireworks from all different angles. Each show is launched from a barge anchored off the coast of different towns about once per week all summer. I've seen them from a boat directly under the bursts (the absolute best), from shore, from a small airplane nearby, from a commercial flight coming into Nice (good altitude), and from the mountains many kms inland. Once you get more than a few kms up and away from the bursts, they are mostly lost against any background city lights. If you are up in the mountains, and there is ocean behind the show, it still doesn't look all that good, but you can pick out the bursts. And if you are at 20,000 feet in a big plane, you really have to strain your eyes to see anytyhing.
The best photos would come from aerial photos, I doubt that even the best spy satellites would have a good enough resolution (rumoured to be 10-15 cm) to pick up individual stars in a burst (stars are usually 1-3 cm). But it would be a fun thing to try out
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
1. The S.O. and I went to a hill overlooking the city on New Year's Eve. We could see three separate fireworks displays, each up to 5 miles away in different parts of town. It was enjoyable, but far from the dazzling experience you would get from beneath them. From 100+ miles above there's just no way you'd see anything against the urban light pollution.
2. I was driving straight from Atlanta to Houston once. Come 2 a.m. and I had just crossed the LA-TX border when I start to notice that the sky was lit up like a gas station -- I mean serious urban glow. Yeehaw, I think, I'm finally there. Nope. Oil Refineries. They put out criminal amounts of light -- next time you see one of those planet-at-night pictures, notice the extremely bright spots. Besides Europe and other metropolitan areas, the big spots are in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Indonesia and anywhere else there's a fossil fuel industry. Oh, and the rain forests of South America being burned.
That's progress! Coming soon, the new Chevy Avalanche ...
dont i remember at least the US had some problems with satellites during y2k? i happen to work in a satellite image analysis lab... too bad it isnt for the government, the highest spatial resolution i see is around 1m pixels. ah well, i still get a personal SGI workstation =]
Here are some photos from times square, in the middle of things...
Not too exciting, but hey, maybe someone will get a kick out of them. And maybe someday I will thumbnail'em and stuff...
-Rich