There was a long bright fireball over north central New Mexico at November 18 2015, 0047:26-37 UTC. It was a possible Taurid earth-grazer but this is still to be determined. It was surely a natural meteor entering the earth's atmosphere. Updated November 19 2015: "Update from the Meteoroid Environments Office: "There was a bright event seen over Colorado and New Mexico around at 5:47 PM MST last evening. It was a rare Taurid earth grazer, just about as bright as the 1st Quarter Moon (magnitude about -10). The meteor started at an altitude of 65 miles just east of the Kiowa National Grassland in New Mexico, and moved south of west at 62,000 mph for over 180 miles. It finally ablated 45 miles above the town of San Fidel, also in New Mexico. The brightness of this fragment of Comet Encke indicates that it was about 8 inches in diameter, with a weight around 20 pounds." I captured the fireball using a Sentinel all-sky camera on loan from Sandia National Laboratories. This camera is merged with my forward scatter VHF radio array that operates at 67.250 MHz and 77.250 MHz. Below is the video and radio reception. The fireball is reflecting in far distant Mexican tv transmitters. This fireball was also unambiguously evident on my decametric radio telescope used for Jupiter observations. I am posting the spectrograms below the movie without analysis as yet. I am not sure if the radio reception of the fireball at 20 MHz and 25 MHz was direct meteor emission or if it was forward scatter reflections. I will report further when I know more. The first spectrogram with arrows is then followed by details and shorter time spanned views. Also added at the bottom is my VHF Spectrum Laboratory graph at 77.25 MHz and 67.25 MHz Thomas Ashcraft - Radio Fireball Observatory - Lamy, New Mexico - Mail - Heliotown |
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FSX spectrographs below showing forward scatter from WWV time staions at 20 MHz and 25 MHz. |
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Below: VHF Spectrum Laboratory graph at 77.25 MHz and 67.25 MHz |
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