(meteorobs) 2/14/2011 NYC / Philly Fireball

[Wayne Hally]

An interesting question, Jim. I would argue that for any single event, that
might be true. For example, I might call a specific meteor +2 mag, while Lew
or Kevin might call it +1 or +3. But over the course of an observing
session, the numbers will come out very close. This has been confirmed by a
number of multi-person observing sessions I've been involved in, as well as
those by observers across the world. The parameter where there is
consistently the least agreement however, is that of color.

That is only made worse in the case of a fireball. First, it's an unexpected
event, unlike meteors during an observing session. 99% of the witnesses (or
99.99999999999999% if you invoke Murphy's Law) are not experienced
observers. It's very difficult to estimate the magnitude of a fireball when
there are no comparison objects, other that the memory of a full moon (M-12)
or the sun (M -26). There are no real comparison objects for color, and
individual perception is highly variable, exacerbated by the short period of
visibility by naïve witnesses.

Looking at this event, 20% reported green, 20% white, 10% each red and gold,
and 40% scattered among the rest. That's pretty inconsistent.

Wayne deposits his 2 cents...


-----Original Message-----
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
[mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of Jim Gamble
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 10:40 PM
To: Global Meteor Observing Forum
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) 2/14/2011 NYC / Philly Fireball

Wayne, would it not stand to reason that if the reported color of a
particular event is "anecdotal", so goes all other observational data?

 
Sincerely,
Jim Gamble
El Paso Station
Sandia Allsky Camera
NAMN






________________________________
From: Wayne Hally <meteoreye at comcast.net>
To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Wed, February 16, 2011 10:47:45 AM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) 2/14/2011 NYC / Philly Fireball



Related to earlier discussions, I logged the reported colors in the 240 AMS
reports. This is just a quick scan, but is pretty close to accurate. It's a
lot to read through quickly.

Green 6
White 6 (2 with red trail)
Red 3
Gold 3
Orange 2
1 each:
Yellow
Blue
Pink
Silver
Blue-White
Green-Red
All the colors of the rainbow
Iridescent

This shows while report of Green are common, everyone sees what they
perceive, and reports are inherently anectdotal unless supported by
spectrographic data.

Wayne

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