Lens Flare – Part 2

I’ve previously covered what lens flare is and how it can impact GOES 17 in a previous post. And to show that GOES 17 isn’t alone, I’ve found two full colour images from the Russian Electro-L 2 satellite that also show lens flare.

This image was taken close to the time that twilight was ending, showing significant amounts of lens flare across the right hand side of the image. There is some lens flare on the right, but it is significantly darker and this is likely to be a result of onboard image processing.

A later image shows almost the mirror image of the previous image.

You can see the first signs of light on the right hand edge of the image, along with the lens flare.

You can also clearly see how this light is more prominent south of the equator too, although not quite as far south as it gets around the southern hemisphere summer equinox.