Origin and info on "S" turn photo taken from ISS of Shuttle Reentry

In article ,
Jorge R. Frank wrote:
Photos were taken by Mike Fossum, with a fairly new camera (brought up
to ISS within the last year, I think), with much better dynamic range
than earlier cameras, at the cost of some motion blur.

The tags in the file indicate that it was taken with a Nikon D3S with a
1 second exposure, F2.8 aperture, and 70mm focal length. The ISO equivalent
was 10000.

marcus hall

On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:18:21 -0800, Pat Flannery
wrote:

Maybe it was the APU. Would the plasma trail billow as it seems this
trail does?? Doc...........

Got me; I'd like to know more.

The plasma trail persists behind the vehicle. I saw the STS-109
Columbia re-entry as it passed over Texas in 2002. The trail was a
line across the sky, just as you see in this photo from the ISS.

Brian

On 7/27/2011 4:30 PM, Brian Thorn wrote:

The plasma trail persists behind the vehicle. I saw the STS-109
Columbia re-entry as it passed over Texas in 2002. The trail was a
line across the sky, just as you see in this photo from the ISS.

It probably has a lot in common with how the aurora borealis works, with
the way the upper atmosphere gases stay ionized for a while after the
radiation hits them.
I've seen meteors leave a glowing trail that persisted for a second or
two, but never longer than that...could APU or RCS exhaust products
interact with the upper atmosphere, and make it glow via a chemical
reaction?
IIRC, way back in the Aerobee or Viking program they were going to shoot
some chemical up to high altitude to create a glow by reacting with the
upper air gases that could be observed from the ground.

Pat

On Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:18:16 -0800, Pat Flannery
wrote:

On 7/27/2011 4:30 PM, Brian Thorn wrote:

The plasma trail persists behind the vehicle. I saw the STS-109
Columbia re-entry as it passed over Texas in 2002. The trail was a
line across the sky, just as you see in this photo from the ISS.

It probably has a lot in common with how the aurora borealis works, with
the way the upper atmosphere gases stay ionized for a while after the
radiation hits them.
I've seen meteors leave a glowing trail that persisted for a second or
two, but never longer than that...could APU or RCS exhaust products
interact with the upper atmosphere, and make it glow via a chemical
reaction?

I suspect it is a result of the Shuttle making a much shallower entry
than your average meteor. The Shuttle just creates a plasma trail for
longer time than a meteor.

IIRC, way back in the Aerobee or Viking program they were going to shoot
some chemical up to high altitude to create a glow by reacting with the
upper air gases that could be observed from the ground.

I think some of those flights were out of Eglin AFB, Florida in the
1970s.

Brian

On 7/30/2011 4:19 PM, Brian Thorn wrote:

I think some of those flights were out of Eglin AFB, Florida in the
1970s.

I'll have to look at it again, but I think that info and what chemical
was used is in my copy of the book "Vanguard" by Martin Caidin.
I didn't realize he went loon talk show host/psychic later on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Caidin

Pat
(League Of Minor Mutants name: Goosebump)