All patriotism, no politics
Jul. 4th, 2002 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beetigerA sound I like: the deep boom of fireworks loud enough that you can feel them as well as see and hear them.
A sound I don't like: Loud cell phone conversations during a public display. (*ringring* "Yeah, we're over here... no, no, past the flagpole, on the other side...you know where there are a bunch of trees behind the stage...)
I heard an interview on NPR a few days ago with the composer of a new comic opera called Fireworks, the plot of which concerns an alien trying to find out about the source of strange colored fires emanating from certain parts of Earth at the same time each year. It made me wonder. Could one actually see a typical city's fireworks display from space? If you know more about this than I do, please let me know.
A sound I don't like: Loud cell phone conversations during a public display. (*ringring* "Yeah, we're over here... no, no, past the flagpole, on the other side...you know where there are a bunch of trees behind the stage...)
I heard an interview on NPR a few days ago with the composer of a new comic opera called Fireworks, the plot of which concerns an alien trying to find out about the source of strange colored fires emanating from certain parts of Earth at the same time each year. It made me wonder. Could one actually see a typical city's fireworks display from space? If you know more about this than I do, please let me know.
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no subject
Date: 2002-07-04 08:37 pm (UTC)Minimum optical resolution for an earth-bound object, because of atmospheric refraction, is 30cm. Though some fireworks fill an area that is fairly large, the individual bits of phosphor are quite small... well smaller than 30cm.
no subject
Date: 2002-07-05 06:22 am (UTC)I suspect -- not quite sure -- that with decent optics and a big chunk of image processing hardware, the reflection of the explosions off the ground would be detectable. But then, that's not quite the same thing. :)