Popular Russian Magazine, section on the meteor event, has maps with local seismic data (but the google translate doesn't do image files). http://kuban.kp.ru/daily/26033.5/2949996/
This Russian wikipedia page is quite entertaining to read with google translate. It also has a lot more interesting information on the science and investigation aspect of the event. http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0% ... 0%B4%D1%83
I have come to consider a possible reason why the Russian "authorities" are coming up empty handed in their search for meteor fragments. People could be keeping the fragments to resell. Supposedly they're already for sale on the www.
jabailo
Re: Feb 15 Meteorite(s) hit Russia - Analysis
And what about that "blinding flash" and more interestingly to me the subsequent darkness. What is the cause of each? First, I wondered if the darkness following the flash was a photographic effect caused by the effect of brightness on the cameras chips, but I believe there are eyewitness reports and also it is strange (but not impossible) that all cameras have the darkness.
Are we to believe that this bit of rock expelled so much matter that the entire sky went white and then black for what seemed like 2 seconds? Perhaps we were seeing an effect on our fluorescing sky, more like an EMP rather than an "explosion".
tayga
Re: Feb 15 Meteorite(s) hit Russia - Analysis
jabailo wrote: ...more like an EMP rather than an "explosion".
Talking of EMP, was there any mention of interference with electrical devices?
justcurious
Re: Feb 15 Meteorite(s) hit Russia - Analysis
There were cellphone outages reported, but not clear if it was due to radiation or physical damage to cell phone towers. Technicaly, light is a form of EM radiation. There are magnetometer observatories in the area but their data is not public. However it would be interesting to see others. Also, seems the most recent data is from 2010 at least on this website: http://supermag.jhuapl.edu/ they even have data in the form of movies (watch as earth rotates in time etc)
There are many links to smaller observatory networks. If data is not available yet for feb 15 it would be interesting to play back other similiar events a few years back.
GaryN
Re: Feb 15 Meteorite(s) hit Russia - Analysis
From a quick estimate, a conventional explosion at the altitude given, 12 to 15 miles, there should have been very little effect at ground level, certainly not enough to shatter all those windows and collapse buildings. I'm wondering if the 'yield' of the event was backwards calculated from the required conventional calculations to have produced the estimated shock wave energy at ground level? Could the yield have been much smaller, and the shock waves from a soliton mechanism, whose effects can travel much further without a fall off in energy? Just thinking out loud here.
justcurious
Re: Feb 15 Meteorite(s) hit Russia - Analysis
My impression is that they kept revising their estimates of size, weight, altitude and height of the meteor based on different assumptions related to the effect (damage). I saw height estimates varying between 5 kilometers (3 miles) and 30 miles, and estimates of explosive power ranging from a a few kilotons to 500 kilotons TNT equivalent. I don't know much about magneto-sensors and what kind of anomalies they can or can't pick up, but my guess is that this meteor should produce some noticeable effect related to the blast or even perhaps due to the magnetic field generated by a high speed charged object.
I was able to download a video editor. Stretching the timeline from the 47sec to 50sec mark shows several discharges! I have 15 images showing the progress of the discharge, but now need to figure out how to resize them.
If you can do this same thing, you will see amazing proof that there were electrical discharges.
I was able to download a video editor. Stretching the timeline from the 47sec to 50sec mark shows several discharges! I have 15 images showing the progress of the discharge, but now need to figure out how to resize them.
If you can do this same thing, you will see amazing proof that there were electrical discharges.
Sparky, maybe you can provide a link for the editor so I can duplicate what you did?
I was at the 47 sec. I discovered that I could stretch the timeline and then very slowly advance the vid.
I saw a leader strike, then a large discharge, a huge discharge , and apparently a residual discharge.
tayga
Re: Feb 15 Meteorite(s) hit Russia - Analysis
Sparky wrote: I saw a leader strike, then a large discharge, a huge discharge , and apparently a residual discharge.
I did the same: downloaded the program (thanks) and stretched the video then stepped through it. But to be honest I couldn't say with confidence that those aren't effects created by the windscreen.
Sparky
Re: Feb 15 Meteorite(s) hit Russia - Analysis
Well, of course the brightness of the discharge will flare on the glass, but that flaring was caused by something bright and coming from the meteor. The attachment that I posted was the first large discharge. Here is what it looks like next....
seasmith
Re: Feb 15 Meteorite(s) hit Russia - Analysis
So 90% mostly semi-conductor (the shrapnel is being described as "glassy"). Iron makes a good transistor dopant.
In a conventional semiconductor diode, conduction takes place while the p–n junction is forward biased and blocks current flow when the junction is reverse biased. This occurs up to a point known as the "reverse breakdown voltage" when conduction begins (often accompanied by destruction of the device).
A wake is formed given by a (generally nonlinear) superposition of wakes due to the individual ions of the cluster. The dynamically modified Coulomb repulsion between its constituents causes the cluster, in effect, to explode.
A Coulomb explosion is a "cold" alternative to the dominant laser etching technique of thermal ablation, which depends on local heating, melting, and vaporization of molecules and atoms using less-intense beams. Pulse brevity down only to the nanosecond regime is sufficient to localize thermal ablation – before the heat is conducted far, the energy input (pulse) has ended.
Sparky wrote: Well, of course the brightness of the discharge will flare on the glass, but that flaring was caused by something bright and coming from the meteor. The attachment that I posted was the first large discharge. Here is what it looks like next....
To shorten the process of identifying the detail you are seeing,, i would suggest adding arrows to the image. d...z
Sparky
Re: Feb 15 Meteorite(s) hit Russia - Analysis
I don't know how to add arrows..
Here is the second large discharge. Notice the glow produced on the ground . And yes there appears to be a windshield flare. It was a very bright discharge! The top image is a later one.
