[meteorite-list] US Air Force Will Continue to Share Fireball Data

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:20:21 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200907312120.n6VLKLZE004431_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

NATURE NEWS: FIREBALL DATA WILL BE AVAILABLE AGAIN

Published online 8 July 2009 | Nature 460, 163 (2009) News in Brief

US Air Force will continue to share meteor data

The United States Air Force says that it will resume sharing data on
incoming meteors with astronomers. The Air Force collects the data with a
network of satellites and sensors designed as a missile early warning system.
For more than a decade, it provided them to astronomers on an ad-hoc basis,
but the informal relationship came to a halt earlier this year (see Nature
459, 896-897; 2009). Astronomers feared that the Air Force had put a stop to
the practice, but "the data will still flow", says Andy Roake, a spokesman
for Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Air Force is
developing procedures for releasing data that will be faster, more
systematic and in compliance with classification procedures. Data sharing
could resume within the next few months.
Received on Fri 31 Jul 2009 05:20:21 PM PDT