(meteorobs) Whitmire, SC likely fall location

[Cooke, William J. (MSFC-EV44)]

Rob,

Please send me the kmz files...

Thanks very much!

Regards,
Bill Cooke
Meteoroid Environments Office
EV44, Marshall Space Flight Center

Office: (256) 544-9136
Fax: (256) 544-0242
William.J.Cooke at nasa.gov

On Feb 15, 2012, at 11:54 AM, Matson, Robert D. wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> I found the confirming radar hits (from two radars) yesterday
> afternoon -- I can send the .KMZ files to anyone that is
> interested. They are definitely associated with the fall.
> The reflectivity, velocity and spectral returns all have
> the "candystriping" that Marc Fries and I have come to
> associate with past confirmed meteorite falls.
> 
> The location is not as bad as it could be. Yes, lots of
> forest, but also many cleared areas due to the nearby
> town of Whitmire, SC.  --Rob
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org on behalf of Esko Lyytinen
> Sent: Wed 2/15/2012 2:57 AM
> To: Meteor science and meteor observing
> Subject: Re: (meteorobs) [meteorite-list] GA SC Bolide seems have produced a large rock
> 
> 
> I made a one station analysis of the Lawndale camera video.
> 
> The camera was calibrated with eight found stars. And a number of frames
> were manually measured.
> A direct fit to the timed directions gives the apparent entry direction
> approximately. In this a reasonable looking deceleration was taken into
> account.
> Some level "scaling" can be got by means of an assumed beginning height,
> consistent with the resulting velocity, with a few iterations.
> I get it arriving form az-direction around 315 or 325 . The entry
> velocity seems to be about 13 km/s having then he beginning height at
> around 80 or 85 km.
> 
> The reulting landing site from this model is very close to Jake's
> southers radar "group". I tried a further velocity (and connected
> beginnig height fit) and with the entry velocity of 13.4 km/s (in this
> model arriving from direction 319) with resulting beginning height of
> about 85 km. Now there is an almost exact hit! The end height in this is
> 26 km. Camera calibration at low elevation angles may be not so good
> affecting some uncertainty to this.
> Also a resonable rough dark flight was modeled. In this the landing is
> 13.8 km before the sea-level crossing of the direct track.
> Then the prediction from this would be a few kilometer to the West of
> the radar hits.
> 
> Wind effects are not taken into account and may well affect this.
> Just now the server in Wyoming tell
> 
> "Sorry, the server is too busy to process your request.
> Please try again later."
> 
> when trying to get the atmospheric sounding data.
> 
> I am practically confident that these "southern" radar hits are from
> this. It would be good to know the exact time of the radar hits.
> In my opinion the northern hit it less probabaly from this.
> 
> No reliable end deceleration is derived from this. And from only one
> station data, this may not be got quite reilably. Ablation model would
> give a reasonable end mass for this velocity and end height of around 5
> kg (if OC). But if this was strongly fragmented in early flight, as may
> well have happened, considering the bright flashing, this mass value may
> rather suit to the biggest mass(es) and the total end mass may be bigger.
> 
> The fall-time to the radar height would be telling on the masses of these.
> 
> Regards,
> Esko
> 
> 
>> Here is my analysis of this meteor:
>> 
>> http://3dradar.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/sc-2132012-at-642-utc/
>> 
>> I think there is a chance there could be meteorites from this event. I
>> think it is highly misleading to say it "produced a large meteorite"
>> when nothing has been found yet...
>> 
>> I think the radar hits probably need further scrutiny (Marc Fries, Rob
>> Matson?) but it seems from what I see, this meteor deserves a bit more
>> attention?
>> 
>> - Jake
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