[PW] Re: Orbiting solar shades

[Ellen Cousins]

Angel has described the cloud's look from Earth this way:

The flyers, thin, transparent membranes of plastic punched with holes, 
would deflect rather than block the light, Angel said, creating an 
almost unnoticeable cloud — "the very faintest wisp" — that, from our 
view on Earth, would cover about a quarter of the sun...

http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/154730

...Like a light-blocking cirrus cloud, the flock of spacecraft would 
diffuse about two percent of the sun's energy away from the Earth.

"You wouldn't notice anything at all. Aesthetically it's not too bad," 
said Angel,...

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/12/21/sunshade_tec.html?category=technology&guid=20061221121530

Ellen C.

Karen Lofstrom wrote:
> I'm trying to access a November 2006 publication in the PNAS journal,
> titled: Feasibility of cooling the Earth with a cloud of small
> spacecraft near the inner Lagrange point (L1) It's at
> <http://intl.pnas.org/cgi/content/short/0608163103v1> I'm not at a
> university and I don't want to pay $10 for a look at one article --
> particularly when I'm interested in the figures, not so much the text.
> I wonder what the cloud would look like from earth, as I'm interested
> in featuring it in a science fiction thingie I'm writing. Not a major
> part of the story, just something the folks on the ground see and take
> completely for granted.
> 
> This is a long shot, but if any of you have access to the article and
> could send me any relevant illustrations, or point me to a place where
> such might be found, or, heck, even speculate yourselves about what it
> might look like from the ground, I would appreciate it.
>