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Re: (meteorobs) Possibly 3 fireballs over Europe on 6-7 April
> Note the seeming regularity of approx. 4 hours inbetween each appearance.
> One could perhaps think of fragments of some fragmenting satellite or rocket
> booster re-entering for an extended period along its orbit (this is just my
> suggestion), although Alan Pickup's Decay Watch page does not give a clear
> candidate.
A satellite whose perigee has dropped sufficiently to produce a fireball
at each orbit, is likely very eccentric and will have a pretty fixed
latitude of perigee. Thus, the fireball would tend to be seen further east
by the time difference between perigees. Thus, if the orbital period were
about 4 hours (implying a very eccentric orbit if perigee is around 100km),
each fireball would occur 4 hours (60 degrees) further east on each orbit.
Cheers, Rob
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