(meteorobs) NASA's "fireball season" - significant effect or myth?

[Marco Langbroek]

Op 5-4-2013 2:03, dfischer at astro.uni-bonn.de schreef:
> As every spring since several years now NASA is claiming again that we are
> in a - mysterious - "fireball season" right now:
> http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011200/a011231/index.html ... with
> so many video and all-sky camera networks in operation nowadays in the
> U.S., Europe and Asia, are we any closer to determining whether the
> claimed enhancement in the fireball rate actually exists?
>
> Daniel


As the ecliptic is higher in the sky in the Northern hemisphere in winter during 
nighttime, you can expect more ecliptic fireballs in winter generally: say 
October to March.

The second part of that period is when the ecliptic is highest in the sky in the 
evening - good for slow grazing fireballs (objects that are "overtaken" by 
earth) that attract attention.

The latter effect is why spring/early summer has a slightly elevated number of 
meteorite falls, favouring the afternoon and early evening.

I have never seen convincing quantified data showing the existence of true 
fireball streams in spring.

- Marco

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Dr Marco (asteroid 183294) Langbroek
Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)

e-mail: dms at marcolangbroek.nl
http://www.dmsweb.org
http://www.marcolangbroek.nl
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