[meteorite-list] Fw: Re: - "witness" to July 6 Fireball PA

From: MeteorHntr at aol.com <MeteorHntr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 10:33:21 EDT
Message-ID: <c4f.4a280b38.378759b1_at_aol.com>

Chris,

I agree to a point. But if one has some good video, there is nothing even
the best eye witness of a 1 am fireball could add. Once it goes dark,
there is nothing to see to report on. Maybe if it was a day time fireball,
someone might see a stone hitting the ground, but not at night.

The burn out spot is as close as we can get, then it is time to walk, or
to ask, via the media, for other people to look in that area.

Of course even more camera info can only help beyond just finding the
landing zone.

Steve


In a message dated 7/9/2009 8:59:39 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
clp at alumni.caltech.edu writes:
A strewn field can be at any orientation with respect to the original
meteor
path, and can lie some miles from the terminal explosion location,
depending
on the height of the explosion and the winds. It is very difficult to
determine where meteorites will land, even with accurate video records and
good weather data (from a weather balloon). At best, you can narrow it
down
to a few tens of square miles. After that, it's back to the tried and
true:
interviewing people on the ground, and searching.

Also, it shouldn't be overlooked that a large fireball, even with a
terminal
explosion, is very likely to produce no meteorites at all. Better camera
data can help access the likelihood of that by helping to narrow down the
entry angle and velocity.

Chris

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Received on Thu 09 Jul 2009 10:33:21 AM PDT