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(meteorobs) Air Force, NASA To Observe 1999 Leonid Meteor Storm
Air Force Space Command News Service
Released: 3 Nov 1999
Air Force, NASA to observe 1999 Leonid meteor storm
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AFPN) -- The Air Force and NASA are
teaming with the international scientific community to monitor November's
rare and potentially hazardous Leonid meteor storm.
The Earth is scheduled to pass through the debris stream from the comet
Tempel-Tuttle Nov. 17 and 18. The collision of this debris with the
Earth's atmosphere could produce a spectacular display of hundreds to
thousands of meteors per hour. The Leonid shower hits its peak every 33
years.
The University of Western Ontario, the Canadian Space Agency, Canada's
Department of National Defence, and the European Space Agency are teaming
with NASA and the Air Force to set up monitoring sites at seven locations
around the world.
Special electro-optical video equipment will be set up at sites in Hawaii,
Florida, the Canary Islands, Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and
at two sites in the Negev Desert, Israel, to record the storm as it
develops. The data collected from these seven sites will be transferred to
a communications center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Alabama. From Alabama, NASA and UWO researchers will compile
and profile the data so satellite operators can access it.
The monitoring sites were chosen because they lie along what is expected
to be the best longitude for viewing. The storm is predicted to peak Nov.
17.
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