[meteorite-list] FW: NEW YORK FIREBALL / Acknowledgement & Gratitude

[Fries, Marc D]

I¹m flattered; thank you.

For those of y¹all who¹ve asked me about the Westchester fall, I am still
working through some ambiguity in the data.  I will send an image to those
who already asked - anyone else can email me off-list and I¹m happy to share
the radar image from that meteor.  Its location and timing are unfortunate ­
two radars other than the Long Island one collected data right up to the
meteor location but didn¹t quite produce a signal.  The Long Island radar
also just missed the falling debris with its first pass, and only caught the
tail end with the second pass ten minutes later.  It¹s pretty, but nothing
like the West data.

Cheers,
MDF


On 3/10/09 3:07 PM, "Darryl Pitt" <darryl at dof3.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> Folks,
> 
> Before I ramp into an update of the Westchester, New York fireball,
> special kudos are due list member Marc Fries of the Jet Propulsion
> Laboratory along with his meteorologist brother.
> 
> As you may recall, Doppler radar revealed the debris cloud created by
> the atmospheric break-up of the space shuttle Columbia.  The
> appearance of Doppler radar returns provided Marc and his brother the
> idea to take a look at such data in the search for meteorites.  For
> years Marc had been waiting to test his hypothesis, and the West,
> Texas fall provided exactly what he was looking for: clear sky, a
> radar return from two different radars and recovered stones.  (It
> bears noting that Mike Farmer and Robert Ward both informed me that
> when they saw the Doppler image of the West debris cloud---which they
> likened to looking like a hail storm---they couldn't get to West,
> Texas quickly enough.)
> 
> NEW YORK FIREBALL
> 
> This past Friday evening Liz Holland witnessed the descent of a
> fireball from her Mt. Kisco (northern Westchester County) home---an
> hour or so North of New York City. After having spoken with Liz at
> length, it was clear she had seen a bolide---and it wasn't arcing
> across the sky but appeared to be coming somewhat towards her.  Around
> the same time, sonic phenomena consistent with the sonic boom of a
> meteoroid breaking the sound barrier were heard throughout eastern
> Westchester County.   Upon news of the same, my wife and I called
> numerous police stations near and far and failed to make much
> headway.  Another piece to the puzzle was needed. Marc produced a
> Doppler  return taken about the same time as the aforementioned visual
> and sonic phenomena which revealed a debris cloud over  Long Island
> Sound.  He is currently working with his brother gathering and
> analyzing further data.  I've helped put the New York media on alert
> and hopefully something, somewhere will turn up.  It's currently
> unclear what portion of this event has met a watery end.
> 
> Fries Brothers, thank you for your assistance.
> 
> 
> Darryl
> 
> 
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