Space storm fizzles
Satellites survive 'drizzle'

November 18, 1998
by Paul Hoversten

Satellite operators were relieved Tuesday after their spacecraft weathered the most intense meteor storm in three decades with no major damage.
 

One of many: A multiple-exposure photo captures a meteor, upper left, over Cape Enrage lighthouse in New Brunswick early Tuesday.

Though the Leonid meteor storm put on a spectacular show in East Asia, it turned out to be less menacing to spacecraft than predicted.

Scientists had estimated up to 5,000 meteors an hour might be visible as Earth passed through the dusty wake of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the sun every 33 years.

Early data indicated an hourly count of only a few hundred meteors.

"We were concerned we would have a hurricane, and it turned out to be a gentle drizzle," said Air Force Col. Mike Kelly, spokesman for U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colo.

	What is a meteor? What is it made up of, and how is it formed? What effects are the meteor showers having on satellites orbiting in space around the Earth? What consequences could result if several satellites were severely damaged? Try It! Based on the article, what are the best geographic locations to view the meteor showers? Use USA TODAY's Weather Page or an atlas to locate these regions, and describe the climatic circumstances you could expect to encounter while viewing the showers. Which areas provide the clearest view of the meteors?

The command operates 60 satellites worth $ 40 billion.

All of the approximately 600 satellites orbiting Earth at altitudes ranging from a few hundred to 22,500 miles were bathed in speeding dust particles from the comet.

The meteors made for a blazing show where the sky was darkest and clearest from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET. Millions gazed skyward from the Mongolian steppes and Australian outback to the streets of Tokyo.

"I witnessed a number of fireballs or shooting stars which were bright enough to illuminate the faces of observers," Chinese astronomer Zhu Jin told a reporter in Beijing.

Earth's orbit takes it through the comet's wake each November. But this year was predicted to be more intense than normal. Tempel-Tuttle's dust stream is especially thick because the comet swung close to the sun in February.

That close pass, coming for the first time since 1966, burned off a greater-than-normal amount of comet dust.

The fear was that the particles -- traveling at 43 miles per second -- might shred the satellites' solar arrays, damage sensitive instruments or cause short-circuits by creating electrically-charged clouds.

None of those scenarios emerged Tuesday after the brunt of the storm had passed.

"Everything's working fine as far as we can tell," said Susan Gordon, spokeswoman for Intelsat in Washington, D.C. But just in case, Intelsat plans to keep the solar arrays on its 25 satellites pointed edge-on to the dust stream until today to minimize damage from stray particles.

Only one satellite has ever been destroyed by a meteor shower: the European Space Agency's Olympus communications satellite in 1993.

If the storm was light this year, that could mean next year's storm will be far heavier. A moderately strong Leonid in 1965 presaged the most intense meteor storm on record the following year.

"The Leonids have shown themselves to be unpredictable, and that unpredictablity is going to concern us more than anything," Kelly said.