Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 15:34:36 +0200 Subject: Flash Workshop
Dear Colleagues,
Like many other workshop organizers for IAU Colloquium 156, I am making a plea for data relevant to the workshop I am organizing. I will be running the workshop on impact flashes seen either at the limb or in reflection from the satellites. I presume that the emphasis will be on the optical flashes but the timing of optical flashes relative to the precursor flashes seen in the near infrared is also very important so I hope that we will have participation by the infrared observers also. I would particularly welcome participation also by experienced meteor astronomers who could comment on the colors of the flash expected from a bolide in Jupiter's atmosphere.
I would like to start the workshop with a preliminary table of all the possible detections of flashes. Many people have already published in one way or another the times of possible flashes but others have not. The key things I hope to accomplish at the workshop include establishing the accuracy of the times, identifying all possible coincidences from more than one site, and directly comparing actual photometric records for shape and size of the flash. We will then try to assess which of the detections might be real.
After considering the photometric records of flashes, we will consider the spectroscopic detections. The instrumental problems are entirely different and the interpretation may also be different.
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who might have data relevant to the impact flashes, particularly from people whose observations have not already been announced. A list of times of possible event sin your data is the most urgent item. Meanwhile, to aid in searches of other datasets, I will provide in a week or two a complete list of the times available to me at that time. This list will be posted on the SL9 electronic bulletin board.
Mike A'Hearn
University of Maryland
ma@astro.umd.edu
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