(meteorobs) Norway/Sweden/Finland bolide

[Matson, Robert]

Hi Esko and group,

I'll repost what I sent to Meteorite Central a little while
ago on the subject, but the synopsis is that I agree with
your conclusions... the bolide was on a northwest to southeast
trajectory, not west to east.  --Rob

- - - -
Hi All,

Finally we can close the book on the ridiculous notion that that
(landslide) photo represented evidence of a meteorite impact.  Time
to move on to the much more important piece of data revealed by
Bjorn Sorheim -- that at least *three* seismic stations recorded
the terminal burst (or possibly just the passage) of the bolide:

1. Kiruna in northern Sweden
2. Lulea in northern Sweden at the north end of the Gulf of Bothnia
3. Karasjok in the northern county of Finnmark, Norway, close to
   the border with Finland

Stations 1 and 2 are about 165 miles apart, with Kiruna NNW of
Lulea.  Stations 1 and 3 are about 175 miles apart, with Karasjok
northeast of Kiruna.  The Karasjok station recorded the sound/
seismic disturbance at 02:13:25:

<http://www.astro.uio.no/ita/nyheter/ildkule06/ildkule06.html>

I haven't yet been able to find corresponding seismic data for
Kiruna or Lulea.

>From what I've been able to read, the only known photograph was
taken at ~2:05am by farmer Peter Bruvold in Lyngseidet in which the
meteor trail moves from upper left to lower right.  (Lyngseidet is
a little east of Tromso and about 130 miles west of Karasjok).
Unfortunately, it doesn't say which direction he was pointed.
Since the left side of the picture is brighter than the right,
it probably means he was facing somewhere between northeast and
south -- consistent with the now-discounted notion that an
impact occurred east of his location in Reisadalen.

Several websites say he heard a sonic boom about 7 minutes after
he saw the bolide.  This would suggest that either the closest
approach of the bolide to the farmer was about 80-90 miles (rather
unlikely given the steep trajectory), or the sonic boom he heard
was associated with a terminal burst 80-90 miles away from him.
Trouble is Karasjok, being 130 miles east of Lyngseidet, should
have registered a sonic boom noticeably earlier than did the
farmer if the bolide was truly on an easterly heading.  Also,
it would have been rather surprising that the station in Lulea
would have picked up anything if the bolide was traveling east.

Pulling all this together, I think it much more likely that the
farmer was actually facing more to the east-southeast, and that
the terminal burst was southeast of him, southwest of Karasjok,
northeast of Kiruna, and well north of Lulea.  If I'm right,
Lulea would have been the last station to record the burst,
and the actual impact would have been somewhere close to the
thin peninsula of Finland separating northernmost Sweden
from Finnmark (Norway).

--Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
[mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of Esko Lyytinen
Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 9:12 AM
To: meteorobs at meteorobs.org
Subject: RE: (meteorobs) More on the Norwegian meteorite



Hi,

The fireball could well have been observed from Northern Finland (if 
clear skies), but we have not received any observations of this to the 
URSA meteor section.

Besides general interes, I was interested for the possibilty of it 
possibly having fallen into Finland area, to the Wertern "hand"or "arm" 
of our country.
I do not have any other data than we have discussed here. Well, actually

I have also looked at the Swedish infrasound data at:
http://www.umea.irf.se/maps/ It appears to have been well visible in the
data of all the four stations.

The Swedish data with the data published in the news (direction of 
infrasound coming to then ARCES stations as given in: 
http://www.astro.uio.no/ita/nyheter/ildkule06/ildkule06.html)  gives the

infrsound (starting) location only some dozens of kilometres North of 
Finland side of border.

I tried to study the image (at the same URL above) by Martin Lyngdal 
taken in "Pollen i Lyngen".

I could locate in my map Lyngen but not Pollen. I tried to locate the 
landscape from Google satellite pictures. I think that I may have 
succeeded, but not for sure.
In any case the illumination tells that the photo is taken into Eastern 
direction. If I located the landscape correctly then the track 
intersects the horizon in the direction 99 (+ - some degrees).

IF the direction of motion was from upper left to lower right  (as I 
expect but not for sure), then it would most probably have fallen quite 
a lot East from Tromso. Even Lyngen is east of Tromso.

The landing site could be near Tromso only IF the the motin in the image

would have been from lower right to upper left. Then it would have come 
from East or ESE.
In the map at:
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1346411.ece
the direction of arrival is given from West. This would be quite a 
contradiction.

If the motion in the image is from upper left to lower right (as l think

probable), then the arrival in any case would have been from much more 
North than given in the map.

In short, I think that the meteorite has most probably fallen quite a 
lot East (ESE) of Tromso, maybe roughly a hundred kilometers, but 
unfortunately:) some dozens of kilometers outside (North of) of Finnish 
border in the "arm".
The location of the assumed hit as in the image does not fit to this at 
all !

That is my analyse (from data available in the net). This might be more 
or less wrong.
(It does not seem easy for me to fit the mutual timing of the Norwegian 
infrasound and seismic data.)

Esko Lyytinen