(meteorobs) Texas fireball -- radar images

[Pat Branch]

Alright I agree that the Austin, Waco, Dallas event was one event and 
was not satellite debris. But if it was a meteor greater than 1 meter 
why didn't STRATCOM report it even earlier (like they did with the 
one over Sudan)? The NEAR project is suppose to track and report on 
any object that size that may strike earth. Also the satellite 
collision could easily produce debris that would re-enter almost 
anywhere or anytime (but maybe not in any direction). Take two car 
sized objects smashing together at 11 km/s. Pieces could have easily 
shot downward at 100 miles/hour which would have re-entered 5-6 hours 
later.

The radar tracks you referenced are great Ed. They show any 
meteorites would have landed about 5 kilometers SE of Lake Whitney. 
Although the altitude differences cause a large spread over the 
possible impact zone. The Fort Worth Radar (which I can see from my 
house) would have imaged the one on the right first and the one on 
the left second. The Granger radar would have imaged the lower 
altitude first and the higher altitude second, so yes it would have 
been a reflection off an Ionization trail. The images would have been 
about a second and 6 degs of scan apart.

My belief they were separate parts of something come from early 
reports from McKinney saying it was seen in the north. In the police 
dash cam from plano it appears to be going north to south in a more 
vertical direction and very high in the sky. Reports from Denton also 
put it very high in the sky (still confused about how this could be). 
The Austin video was suppose to be taken looking north giving a fall 
area around Marble Falls. So it must have been taken NE or ENE to 
give the low trajectory and east to west appearance. There is no way 
an object 9,000 feet off the ground can be seen from 120 miles away, 
so it must have been over Hearn area from the Austin video.

It would be interesting to hear more reports from the Whitney, West, 
Mart area to try and determine if there are any possible meteorites 
from this one. Not likely to start any search parties like the 
Canadian bolide did though....

Clear skys all.