GOCE keeps flaring

Yesterday evening (Jan 8) started clear. I captured GOCE (09-013A) flaring again, and then observed Lacrosse 3 (97-064A). I also tried the HEO objects USA 179 and 198 but due to a mistake in software parameters I keyed in, I photographed the wrong sky locations...

Next the sky got clouded again, the forerunners of snow.

The GOCE flare behaviour is by now getting familiar (if still in aspects unexplained: see the previous post). This time, the flare occurred at 17:02:55.1 UTC (Jan 8). This corresponds to an angle of 93.4 degrees and a tilt of 25.8 degrees.

Below is the picture and the resulting brightness diagram.

click images to enlarge

I also photographed a GOCE flare on 5 January, under appaling sky conditions. Start and end of the trail were not visible (hence, I cannot produce a brightnes sprofile for that flare) and in fact the flare even shos up only marginally (see image below). By measuring the brightest point of the flare and comparing to the GOCE orbit, it resulted in a flare time though: 17:15:48.1 UTC (Jan 5). This corresponds to an angle of 93.2 degrees and a tilt of 37.8 degrees.

click image to enlarge