[meteorite-list] Grimsby, Ontario bolide info

From: Richard Kowalski <damoclid_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:33:00 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <21129.69020.qm_at_web33907.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Rob Matson asked me to forward this to the list

--
Richard Kowalski
http://fullmoonphotography.net
IMCA #1081
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RE: Grimsby, Ontario bolide info
Thursday, October 15, 2009 12:23 PM
From: "Matson, Robert D." <ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com>
At the beginning of the week I contacted Dr. Peter Brown at University
of Western
Ontario, letting him know that the Grimsby bolide terminal burst had
been captured
on NexRad Doppler radar images taken in Buffalo, New York. I created
several maps
of the radar returns at three different altitudes, showing that the
terminal burst
location is in perfect agreement with UWO's solution (triangulated from
seven
all-sky cameras). I shared this information with Dr. Tony Phillips at
SpaceWeather,
and he has provided links on his site to a couple of the radar images I
created:
http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=12&month=10&year=2009
A wide-area map is here:
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2009/13oct09/Grimsby_5100m.jpg
And a second map zoomed in on the terminal burst cloud is here:
http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2009/13oct09/Grimsby_Zoom_5100m.jpg
As the filenames suggest, the Doppler beam altitude at this location was
a little
over 5 km, and the area covered is roughly a mile wide by 2 miles long.
(There
were also colocated radar returns at 6.5 km and 3.7 km, though the
largest
returns were at 5.1 km.)? Judging from where meteorites were found in
Park
Forest and Ash Creek (West), I would expect a number of meteorites to be
found
directly beneath the strongest radar returns, with sizes generally
increasing
as you move to the east-southeast.
I have not yet seen any images of the purported golf-ball-sized
meteorite that
hit the SUV, nor do I know where this SUV was parked, so can't judge
whether
it's a legitimate possibility.
--Rob 
      

Received on Thu 15 Oct 2009 03:33:00 PM PDT