Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science
METEORITE FALLS
DATE/TIME5/8/2023 @ 1623 UTC5/8/2023
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LAT/LONG40.3069 • -74.84
40.3069
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Media reports indicate a meteorite fell through a house in Hopewell, NJ between 12 noon - 1PM local time.
This was a small event, with total energy estimated at 1 tonne TNT equivalent. Relatively little data is available to study this event. Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) sensors did not detect this event, and only one eyewitness reported it to the American Meteor Society. Seismometers do not clearly show this event. However, NOAA recently made airport weather radar (TDWR) data available through the same Weather and Climate Toolkit software as NEXRAD data, and this fall shows up clearly in TDWR data. The composite image shows a mixture of NEXRAD (blue/gray pixels) and TDWR (green/purple) data. Small meteorites show up remarkably well in TDWR Doppler velocity data, probably as a function of radar scan parameters rather than actual velocity.
Falling meteorites experienced winds out of ~300 degrees azimuth, with a maximum velocity of ~60 m/s (~140 mph). As a result, meteorites are probably widely scattered on the ground.
