(meteorobs) possible fireball in Portugal - update

Andrei Ol'khovatov olkhov at mail.ru
Sat Jun 5 03:05:38 EDT 2004


Dear All,

Regarding the unindentified light over Portugal on June 1, 2004, now it
looks to me that Sun was already too deep below horizon to illuminate
possible airplane's contrail.
Unfortunately I don't have software to calculate a height/altitude of the
Earth shadow in the area of the event, but my rough estimations show that
at 22.15 UTC June 1 Sun was about 22 degrees below local horizon at 38 N,
8W.
If so indeed the Earth shadow height was ~ 500 km which completely exclude
any
possibility of the solar illumination.

Does anybody have software/program to calculate the Earth shadow height or
the solar [altitude] angle at least?

Thank you!
Best wishes,
Andrei Ol'khovatov
Russia, Moscow

----- Original Message -----
From: Andrei Ol'khovatov <olkhov at mail.ru>
To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 6:55 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) possible fireball in Portugal - update


> It looks like "airplane associated" indeed. Airplane's contrails
illuminated
> by sun?
> The only strange thing is that (if I correctly understand) the Portuguese
> AirForce completely failed to indentify them as airplanes... Just a large
> airplane with transponder etc. can cruise at 12 km altitude. Maybe some
> confusing, misunderstanding, etc.
> I hope that Paulo will update on the development.
>
> Best,
> Andrei Ol'khovatov
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek at wanadoo.nl>
> To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
> Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 6:34 PM
> Subject: Re: (meteorobs) possible fireball in Portugal - update
>
>
> >
> >
> >
> > > Dear Paulo,
> > >
> > > If the radar tracked the lights indeed, they could not have been
> > meteoroidal
> > > bolides.
> > [snip]
> > > Best wishes,
> > > Andrei Ol'khovatov
> > > Russia, Moscow
> >
> > Indeed, altitudes and speeds stated suggest aircraft to me.
> >
> > - Marco
> >
> >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: Paulo Heleno <meteoro at sapo.pt>
> > > To: <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
> > > Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 5:35 PM
> > > Subject: (meteorobs) possible fireball in Portugal - update
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Portuguese airforce stated that 2 objects were detected in radar:
one,
> > > > cruising at about 12000 m...the other was cruising at 2000 m and
then,
> > > > climbed up to 7000 m, at an estimated speed of 800 Km/h.
> > > > No noise was heard, and the object was envolved in smoke, with white
> > light
> > > >
> > > > Paulo
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Mailing list meteorobs
> > > > meteorobs at meteorobs.org
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> > > >
> > >
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> >
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>
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