Strobe flash rates
I wonder if one of you clever medical chappies could help out a slightly confused engineer.
It's been set in stone forever that strobes on aircraft have to flash at between 40 and 100 flashes per minute. Now my (limited) understanding is that this is considered optimum (a) to give maximum visibility and (b) to minimise any risk of an observer (or the pilot if the lights are reflected back of, say, close cloud) suffering a strobe induced fit.
But, I've got a problem with somebody wanting me to approve a mod to fit strobes that flash at about 16 per minute - which is a great deal slower. Sooner or later I'll probably have to go to the CAA about this, but in general terms I'd like to know
(1) If this sort of rate offers a safety problem in terms of effects upon a human observing them, and
(2) If this sort of rate significantly degrades the chances of it being spotted by another aircraft.
Can anybody help?
G