Re: (meteorobs) Oct 30 Fireball

• To: Meteor Observers Mailing List <meteorobs@latradedot com>
• Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Oct 30 Fireball
• From: Lew Gramer & Karen Simmons <lewkaren@tiacdot net>
• Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 15:27:59 -0500
• Reply-To: meteorobs@latradedot com
• Sender: owner-meteorobs

Thomas Wojack <pued@msndot com> asked:
>Can someone please tell me what the "tapes" are?

Hi, Thomas, thanks for the question. The tapes George Zay (was it?) is
referring to are data tapes, collected from military and meteorological
imaging satellites orbiting the earth. All the data (imaging and otherwise)
collected by these sats is archived for a certain (short) period of time.
When an extraordinary event like a fireball occurs, we can actually notify
the DoD (Dept of Defense - US) or NASA (?), and if we're quick enough, they
can reduce the data from that day's archive tapes to see if any of their
spacecraft captured either a high-res image or other information about the
meteor. Pretty neat, eh?

Lew

===============================================================================
Karen Simmons & Lew Gramer lewkaren@tiacdot net http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren
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