(meteorobs) Fireball questions

[Richard Kramer]

At 09:32 PM 6/21/04 +0200, you wrote:
> > Hello List,
> >
> > I'm working on new page of my website. This page
> > concerns fireball explosions.
> >
> > Just some questions:
> > When a fireball explodes and creates a sonic (shock)
> > wave observed at seismic stations ++++ can we suppose
> > that meteorites can be found on the ground?

Tangential to the topic, a few summers ago there was an explosion of some 
sort in the sky south of Boston, Massachusetts. As I recall, it was 
somewhere over Hingham or Braintree. Reports were of a flash in the sky. I 
don't believe there were any visible ionization or smoke trails. I no 
longer recall if there were reports of an audible explosion.

I happen to particularly remember it not because I saw the flash or heard 
the explosion, nor because of the sketchy news reports which appeared over 
the next few days, but rather because of the particularly memorable way I 
experienced the event. I didn't see it or hear it, but instead I FELT it.

It was a during a rather warm, still summer night, sometime, I believe, 
after midnight. I live about 20 to 25 miles from the place below which the 
flash occurred. I was relaxing in bed with windows open, eyes closed, not 
quite asleep, enjoying the night's insect sounds. My windows faced almost 
directly towards the direction of the flash.

Abruptly, the bucolic calm of the night was interrupted a strong, steady 
pulse of air entering my bedroom windows, pushing the curtains into the 
room. This wind, which lasted for 2 - 3 seconds was instantly recognizable 
as the leading impulse of an attenuated, sub-sonic, shock wave. There was a 
brief pause followed by a 2 - 3 second pulse in the return direction which 
drew the curtains sharply into the window screens. I knew immediately that 
somewhere there must have been a explosion of some sort, but I didn't learn 
until the news reports next morning that the source of the shock wave was 
the explosion of an incoming meteor. While it was over quickly, the brief, 
cooling breeze was delightful, and the experience somewhat wonderous, 
particularly in retrospect, once I learned the source of the wave.

So, images of dinosaur killing impacts notwithstanding, when circumstance 
are favorable, it is indeed possible not only to feel an incoming meteor, 
but also for the experience to be a pleasant one.