Toronto – October 8, 1998 – A team of Canadian scientists working with the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology (CRESTech) outlined today a global operation aimed at safeguarding the world's 600-plus satellites as they head into the first serious meteor threat of the modern space age on November 17, 1998.
Though the risk of damage from the Leonids meteor storm is considered slight, a number of international satellite operators, including those of the United States Department of Defence, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, are working with CRESTech to reduce the odds of impact from the natural space debris forming the comet trail into which Earth will soon pass.
The Leonids are a swarm of metoroids that intercept Earth's orbit to some
degree every year, usually with little more fanfare than a spectacular night of watching shooting stars. This year, however, the storm will reach levels not seen in over thirty years as Earth travels directly into a path of interplanetary flotsam flung by the four-kilometer-wide Comet Tempel-Tuttle.
That last peak occurred in 1966, at a time when only a handful of small
scientific satellites were in operation. Currently, there are estimated to be well over 600 operational satellites in Earth's orbit, transmitting
signals 24 hours a day for services such as search-and-rescue, entertainment broadcasts, telecommunications, as well as the global-positioning system (GPS) used by commerce, transportation industries and military forces, among others.
"In the last 30 years, people in technologically advanced countries have
developed a strong dependence on a wide variety of satellite services,"
explains Peter Brown, the University of Western Ontario astronomer leading the CRESTech science team. "Unfortunately, if even one satellite was disabled during the storm, it may not only be a multi-million dollar disaster for its owners but may disrupt services for up to millions of clients."
Peter Brown is organizing the Canadian science team providing the hurricane-style forecast of the shower's activities to satellite operators around the world during the peak night. Clients include the United States Space Command, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, Canada's Department of National Defence and several other government and commercial organizations.
For more information, please contact:
Andre Bellefeuille
CRESTech Communications Manager
Office: (416) 665-5464, Cell phone: (416) 707-9120
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