(meteorobs) fireball report was no subject

Tony Beresford dberesford at adam.com.au
Thu Nov 12 01:20:19 EST 2009


At 04:58 AM 12/11/2009, Heidi Sacks wrote:
>Hello,
>
>My husband and I were thrilled and amazed to see a meteor(?) on 
>Saturday November 7th
>while standing on the beach in Monterey, California.  ....


Heidi, the  trail left by the meteor was  that you describe was 
essentially a dust very fine
dust. It was being illuminated by the Sun, like the clouds and 
aircraft contrails.
But it was higher in the atmosphere so the sunlight illuminating it
wasn't so red. In addition the dust particles could easily be so small,
that the scattered light has more of a bluish colour.

Your report was concise and accurate. The aircraft contrails and clouds
disappeared when Sun got sufficciently below the horizon from their
position that the scattered sunlight wasn't enough to make them visible.
The meteor trail illumination would last longer.
Meteors become visible at 60 miles (90Km) up. Large ones
can penetrate down to 20 miles up.


   If it had been seen against a dark sky it might have
seen a "train" which lasted 10-30 seconds from excited air molecules
but you would not see that phenomena in bright twilight.
Tony Beresford





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