[meteorite-list] 2nd Report from Strewnfield in Edgewood Texas

From: Marc Fries <mfries8_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 09:16:29 -0800
Message-ID: <BLU0-SMTP1883D3C127E75D6F24A4E2AF1750_at_phx.gbl>

Rather quietly and "behind the scenes", there has been a lot of work
developing the use of weather radar to detect meteorites, by Rob Matson,
Jake Schaefer, myself, my brother, and others. It's been a tall
learning curve but I think we've made a lot of progress. In my opinion,
the biggest "unknown" left at this point is to figure out what size of
meteorites and/or other debris actually show up best in radar data. The
radar reflections we see are not only reflections off of solid objects
but also from atmospheric turbulence. And we also have to unravel the
knot of reflections in the Mie scattering regime, where the reflected
signal strength varies widely - and nonlinearly - with the size of the
reflector. The upshot is that we are still working on sorting out what
radar reflection equates to what size of meteorite. If we see a radar
reflection, is it from search-worthy stones or just a cloud of ~1g
rocks, or even ablation spherules? A good part of that is just a matter
of timing, but not all of it. Lorton, for example, produced a strong
radar signature in TDWR radar data but nothing was found beyond the
original doctors'-office-smasher, suggesting that we were looking at a
swarm of tiny rocks....? The same is true for the Jacksonville, IL event.

This DFW fireball appears to come from a well-consolidated object that
survived a long "burn" time with little in the way of fragmentation.
West, TX, by comparison, fragmented extensively and produced a
beautiful, easy to follow set of radar signatures. My take on the DFW
fireball is that we're looking for a small number of large rocks that
reached the ground quickly, producing a short-lived radar signature that
requires some degree of luck to figure out. ...or are we looking at 1g
stones that no one is going to find? Just having that answer in hand
will tell us a lot about where to look.

Still working on it...

Cheers,
Marc Fries

On 2/7/12 8:46 AM, Steve Dunklee wrote:
> The radar data is not off. It is just not understood by most people how the parabola of a fall can cause the actual landing area to be up to 12 miles away from the radar data. If you stick a french curve in an apple to represent the west to east fall. the termination point is north to northwest of the radar data.
> Cheers
> Steve Dunklee
>
> --- On Tue, 2/7/12, Jim Wooddell<nf114ec at npgcable.com> wrote:
>
>> From: Jim Wooddell<nf114ec at npgcable.com>
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] 2nd Report from Strewnfield in Edgewood Texas
>> To: "Dennis Miller"<astroroks at hotmail.com>, mccartney at blackbearddata.com, meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>> Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 4:29 PM
>> Hi All!
>>
>> I thought it was determined the Radar data was off???
>>
>> And, it really is not a strewn filed until one is actually
>> found!
>>
>> Cheers!
>>
>> Jim
>>
>>
>> Jim Wooddell
>> http://k7wfr.us
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Dennis Miller"<astroroks at hotmail.com>
>> To:<mccartney at blackbearddata.com>;
>> <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 8:55 AM
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] 2nd Report from Strewnfield in
>> Edgewood Texas
>>
>>
>>> Nice! I am so glad you didn't set the public price too
>> high, like
>>> Thousands
>>>
>>> for Ash Creek. :-) I do hope you are successful in your
>> hunt. Keep us
>>> posted.
>>>
>>> Missed you in Tucson! Again, Good Luck!
>>>
>>> Dennis Miller
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> From: mccartney at blackbearddata.com
>>>> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>>>> Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 22:17:55 -0700
>>>> Subject: [meteorite-list] 2nd Report from
>> Strewnfield in Edgewood Texas
>>>> Nothing has been found where the radar data said it
>> might be. Torvald
>>>> and Donavan have left the zone replaced by Stephen
>> Thompson out of
>>>> Fredricksburg TX who is an expert on Sonic Boom
>> characteristics.
>>>> I've been lucky enough to get some media attention
>> to try to motivate
>>>> the public to assist here is today's interview on
>> TV. This is the 5 TV
>>>> interview I've given since arriving.
>>>>
>>>> http://dfw.cbslocal.com/video/6713580-meteor-hunters-scouring-north-texas/
>>>>
>>>> We spent the day interviewing more witnesses&
>> compiling and extending
>>>> the range of sonic boom farther to the east to
>> include Wills Point, and
>>>> southern Lake Tawakanii.
>>>>
>>>> We'll do some field samplings tomorrow east of 19.
>>>>
>>>> Also as a warning. I've heard from a local that the
>> landowner who owns
>>>> the land in the north where the upper radar blip
>> is, has gotten very
>>>> hostile to all outsiders. The local warned me to
>> tell everyone to stay
>>>> off that property. He thinks the landowner may
>> shoot to wound or maim.
>>>> So I'd like everyone to take that threat to heart.
>>>>
>>>> At this point, we have two new important
>> observations and think the
>>>> strewnfield to be east of 19 now.
>>>> At this point, there have been no Z sightings, but
>> the Black Panther
>>>> remains a constant threat. 5 dogs were killed.
>> Also, the park rangers
>>>> at the state park warned us that a mountain lion
>> has been spotted in the
>>>> area.
>>>>
>>>> Some sonic boom activity has been traced back to
>> some individual using
>>>> some kind of reactive explosive that detonates when
>> shot by a bullet.
>>>> The local police has informed us this has been a
>> bit of a problem for
>>>> weeks. Consequently, it really screws up our
>> acoustical survey.
>>>> and a mention and big hand to Dirk Ross, David
>> Gonzales, and Marc Fries
>>>> for giving us back support.
>>>>
>>>> -mccartney taylor& stephen thompson
>>>> (meteorite hunter) (offical panther bait)
>>>>
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Received on Tue 07 Feb 2012 12:16:29 PM PST