[meteorite-list] Marc Fries, Doppler, the Lorton fall, and Meteorite Men

From: Rob Matson <mojave_meteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:28:02 -0800
Message-ID: <GOEDJOCBMMEHLEFDHGMMEEOEEAAA.mojave_meteorites_at_cox.net>

Hi All,

I'd like to echo and expand on the comment by the List member
who contacted Mike Hankey:

"Marc Fries was the first to use this strategy and has been as
willing as anyone else to share his information within the meteorite
community."

Marc (and his brother) were doing NEXRAD Doppler analysis/interpretation
well before I was, and much of what I've learned came directly through
my e-mail exchanges with him. We are not competitors; we are friends
who have shared theories on at least a half-dozen events for which
radar may (or may not) have been recorded, both for recovered falls
and yet-to-be-recovered ones. Indeed, we expect to co-author a paper
later this year on the use of the WSR-88D (NEXRAD Doppler) network to
assist in the recovery of meteorites from new falls (as well as old
ones).

Mike is quite right that if Marc wasn't currently collecting toaster-
sized meteorites in Antarctica, he would be hard at work on the Lorton
fall as well. Marc's expertise covers not only analysis of Doppler
signals, but also the use of upper atmospheric (radiosonde) wind data
to improve the predictions of meteorite impact points. Marc and I
independently developed wind drift models for transforming bolide
trajectories into simulated strewnfields, and I for one wish he *was*
around to run his model so that we could compare predictions and
add a little confidence to the modeling results.

I got a great laugh from Paul Harris's post about my "supposed"
prowess at finding meteorites, and his discovery of my "secret"
for getting them all home! To really appreciate the tongue-in-
cheek humor, you would need to see the sum total of my finds over
the last decade: a tremendous volume that I'm pretty sure could
safely be carried in a single, paper grocery store bag without
ripping. ;-) For comparison, it wouldn't surprise me if 90% of
Steve Arnold's finds in Brenham individually outweigh my entire
discovery collection!

Speaking of Steve, I finally got to watch Steve and Geoff's
Meteorite Men pilot which I DVR'd while I was in Hawaii earlier
this month. What a fun show! A great combination of treasure
hunting, humor, science, intrigue and even guest characters
that we all know. If the series is anything like the pilot (and
I suspect it will be even better), I think the Discovery Science
channel will have quite a hit on its hands. Congrats Geoff and
Steve!

Cheers,
Rob
Received on Sun 24 Jan 2010 04:28:02 PM PST