[meteorite-list] DOD Satellites Detect March 2003 Bolide Over Park Forest

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:21:01 2004
Message-ID: <3F0B7631.A661D8FE_at_bhil.com>

Hi,

    A little geometry here, gentlemen. The "aiming point" is not the center of
the strewn field. Assuming that fragments from the breakup have randomized
perpendicular vectors, you have a cone of dispersal oriented along the flight
plan.
    Since the flight path is roughly 30% off the vertical, the cone of
dispersal intersects the ground at a 30% angle also. The largest portion of
the strewn field ellipse will be NNE (22.3 degree azimuth is almost perfectly
NNE, which is 22.5 degrees) of the aiming point.
    Since Park Forest is six or seven miles SSW of the aiming point, one would
expect the larger NNE portion to extend for 10 to 12 miles NNE from the aiming
point. That line runs (roughly) through Flossmoor, Homewood, Harvey,
Riverdale, one mile west of I-94 from 115th St. up to 103rd St. before ending.

    HOWEVER, one must not assume that the majority of the fragments shed or
dispersed originated solely with the final breakup. In fact, the final breakup
may have produced no fragments at all (total burn up)! There were obviously
earlier breakups which occurred further "up" the flight path and whose cones
of dispersal would have been shifted to the SSW.
    If the fragments collected in Park Forest were from the "final" breakup,
then the strewn field could extend as far NNE as indicated above, but if they
were from an "earlier" breakup the resulting strewn field, while having the
same shape and orientation, would have a more southerly footprint.
    If the largest fragments are from Olympia Fields, it would appear that the
area immediately NNE of Olympia Fields would have larger fragments if it were
part of the strewn field, but it also appears that these areas, being private
golf clubs, were not searched, as I understand it. Did anyone interview the
groundskeepers to see if they had to pick up a bunch of damn rocks off the
fairways?
    Since the purpose of these satellites is pinpoint the coordinates and
flight paths of IR-emitting objects and since accuracy is primary (did that
missile come from Kazakhstan or Fiji?), it's silly to imagine it's less
accurate than Park Forest teenagers, pub crawlers, and cops, sincere as their
observations may have been.
    And, lastly, as if we needed any more proof of the utter unreliability of
"eye" witnesses...


Sterling K. Webb
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Farmer wrote:

> I am going to have to belive the satelite.
> Mike
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve Witt" <stelor96_at_yahoo.com>
> To: "Rob Wesel" <Nakhladog_at_comcast.net>
> Cc: "Meteorite-List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 2:37 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] DOD Satellites Detect March 2003 Bolide Over
> Park Forest
>
> > Rob,
> >
> > All of the eyewitnesses I interviewed indicated a SE to NW flight
> > path.
> >
> > Steve
> >
> >
> > --- Rob Wesel <Nakhladog_at_comcast.net> wrote:
> > > The distribution from Olympia Fields/Park Forest to Steger/Beecher
> > > would
> > > argue that the flight path was NW to SE or vice versa. The larger
> > > masses in
> > > the Olympia Fields area would support the former. If they are
> > > correct I was
> > > searching the wrong side of every building. Please enlighten,
> > > --
> > > Rob Wesel
> > > ------------------
> > > We are the music makers...and we are the dreamers of the dreams.
> > > Willy Wonka, 1971
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
> > > To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> > > Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 11:17 AM
> > > Subject: [meteorite-list] DOD Satellites Detect March 2003 Bolide
> > > Over Park
> > > Forest
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > > > http://phobos.astro.uwo.ca/~pbrown/usaf/dod231.txt
> > > >
> > > > Fireball Detection
> > > > Department of Defense Announcement
> > > > (courtesy of Peter Brown)
> > > > July 7, 2003
> > > >
> > > > IR sensors aboard US DOD satellites detected the impact of a
> > > bolide over
> > > > Park Forest, Illinois, on 27 March 2003 at 05:50:26 UTC. The
> > > object
> > > > traveled from the SW to the NE on a heading of 22.3 degrees, with
> > > a
> > > > flight path angle of 62.3 degrees from the local horizontal.
> > > > The straight line intersection of the flight path with the ground
> > > was at
> > > > 41.56 North latitude, 87.67 West longitude. It was possible to
> > > derive a
> > > > velocity for the object of 20 +/- 1 km/sec. The impact was
> > > simultaneously
> > > > detected by space based visible wavelength sensors operated by
> > > the US
> > > > Department of Energy. From these sensors the total radiated
> > > energy was
> > > > estimated at 1.4 X 10^11 joules.
> > > >
> > >
Received on Tue 08 Jul 2003 09:56:02 PM PDT