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Re: (meteorobs) New Member Peter Stinson & Request for Info...
At 02:47 PM 6/17/99 -0400, you wrote:
as you may know, a red or orange flare is an international
>symbol of distress in the maritime community. Often mariners, or people on
>shore, will report seeing a flare which we suspect might be a meteor...
Hi Peter,
What an interesting problem. I can certainly see how bright
meteors/fireballs might be confused with distress flares. As others have
mentioned, color purity would be a key factor. Although I have seen some
very vivid red and orange colored meteors and fireballs in the past,
however, the red ones were probably more of an off red in color.
I would think that a flare would leave behind a more persistent/longer
lasting path of illumination (train) compared to most meteors that I've
seen. I would also think that the path of illumination of a flare would be
more uniform in brightness along its length compared to a meteor. I would
think the curvature of the trajectory would be an important distinguishing
factor also in most cases.
By chance, if a bright meteor were to penetrate a cloud deck, I would think
it would be more apt to leave a discernible amount of noise.
It would be helpful for you to have a listing of the different meteor
showers, but this still would not rule out the occurrence of a bright
sporadic meteor/fireball.
Most flares that I've seen in the field tend to move slower and follow a
shorter path/trajectory.
Also, I'm not sure, but I think many bright meteors can often be detected
across FM broadcast bands via crackles and pops, ofcourse the observer
would have to be listening closely to an FM station at the time of
observation--probably not likely.
Certainly a difficult problem with no clear cut solutions that I can see at
this time.
Good Luck,
Mark Mikutis
E-mail: perseus1@pcpartnerdot net
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