Hello, Dave and the list,
when we are talking about human observations, they are allways subjective. Don�t mean yours now...;-
Just wondering, if somebody has opportunity to have some data from air force or civilian air radars or weather-service radars, this case should be cleared. Don�t know, how long they store the tapes, but it should be some 6 months usually.
The military radar-data is usually secret, also civilian air can be today, but when you are asking for just "unusual" phenomenon during this time, it should be possible to get the information. Sure not for everybody, but if some official organisation, like university or so, makes the inquiry, it may make it a bit easier.
The fragments of the meteoroid should be seen as an unusual data in low-altitude radars, also the ablation and ionisation of the material should left marks on radar-data in higher altitudes.
In my opinion, the weather-radars may be the easiest...;-
Just my 2 cents again...
pekka
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hello List,
I have some interesting information regarding this thread. I
saw the Park Forest meteor just after it came below the
cloud deck (the Chicago area was overcast at the time), and
the main fireball and 3 fragments extinguished about 1
second after I spotted it. I just got off the phone with our
local NWS office to find out what the cloud ceiling height
was at that time. I was told that it was 7000 (seven
thousand) feet. So, the upper limit for when the fireball
extinguished is 7000 feet. I saw this between 11:50 pm and
11:51 pm (my car clock is about 30 seconds fast and it
showed 11:51 pm when I looked at it immediately after seeing
the fireball). Hope this is helpful.
Regards,
Dave Johnson
----- Original Message Follows ----- Greetings Steve & List
Steve you wrote:
"Out of all the people I have talked with here (into the
hundreds
now) many saw the flash, quite a few heard the sonic booms,
but few
actually experienced the impacting first hand. Matt was the
first
person that I know of who both saw the fireball and witnessed (more or less) the impact".
I also had the good fortune of talking to a witness that saw
and
heard the fireball and witnessed (more or less) the impact.
Paulette
Garza was standing in front of her house when the event
happened. The
first flash a bit to the south of PF was what caught her
attention. I
believe this is the detonation that dropped meteorites in
the Steger,
Crete area. She then saw a much brighter second flash nearly
directly
overhead. (I feel this detonation dropped the meteorites
that fell on
Park Forest and Olympia Fields). Surprisingly she did not
hear the
meteorite crash into her house that almost hit her son
Robert, but
when she walked back into the house that night it was
immediately
apparent that all hell had broken loose.
You also wrote:
"Now, did the fireball extinguish at 12 mile up, or possible
higher
or lower"?
Actually the bolide did not extiguish over Park Forest at all, there were merely two detonation events over the south suburbs. The bolide itself continued on for quite a bit longer (dropping meteorites all along the flight path). The "main mass" is many, many miles downrange of Park Forest. I continue to find and interview witnesses who actually saw the bolide and hope (at some point in the not too distant future) to pinpoint where the main mass actually made ground.
Back to the time and date of the actual fall; MAPS has it at 23:50 hours. My calculations from over 20 reliable witnesses (who made note of the time thinking it was an Iraqui invasion) put the fall at 23:54. I was able to verify this somewhat by the times shown on the various screens of police dashboard cams and news broadcast shots, security cameras, etc... that actually were "filming" at the time of the fall. (The time is always on the screen somewhere). To be honest, I'm not sure if I've seen all of the "film" that was shot of the fireball, but based on the above, 23:54 is what I'd call the official time.
Now, what time did the meteorite hit the ground? I'm clueless.
Steve
===== Steve Witt IMCA #9020
http://www.meteoritecollectors.org
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