1. Seismic Observation and Location of a Meteor Burst From a Dense Station Deployment in Southern Spain.
- Author
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Stich, Daniel, Casado Rabasco, Josué, Madiedo, José María, Guerrero Rascado, Juan Luis, and Morales Soto, Jose
- Subjects
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METEORS , *ATMOSPHERIC waves , *ATMOSPHERIC temperature , *SOUND waves , *WIND speed , *ATMOSPHERIC acoustics , *SEISMOMETERS - Abstract
A meteor event on 11 December 2016 in southern Spain was accompanied by an audible boom and felt vibrations. Acousto‐seismic coupling of the near‐field pressure wave has been recorded by an unusually large number of 44 local seismic stations. Considering the ERA5 atmospheric temperature and wind speed model, we can attribute the seismic detections to a point source at 38 km height, coincident with the most luminous fragmentation event recorded by meteor cameras. We show and analyze waveforms, spectrograms and signal polarization along a dense, temporary broadband transect in the area. Seismic records show important differences between them, like large variability in polarization, amplitudes and frequency content, emphasizing the role of local effects. The duration and complexity of waveforms can be attributed to path and site effects, including multipathing through small‐scale atmospheric heterogeneity and scattering of the incoming acoustic wavefield at local topography. Plain Language Summary: The evening of 11 December 2016, a bright meteor was observed in southern Spain, followed by an audible boom and felt vibrations. The vibrations were recorded at 44 seismometers in a ∼110 × 100 km2 area. In order to locate the signal origin, we consider the atmospheric temperature and wind speed conditions at that time, and find that the wave arrival times are consistent with a source at 38 km height. The source can be associated with the principal explosion event of the meteor recorded by the cameras. A special aspect of this meteor fall is the density of the seismic observations, revealing large variability of the recordings at nearby stations. The observations suggest that the complexity of recorded waveforms is driven by the small‐scale atmospheric structure, local topography and obstacles around the recording stations, as well as the peculiarities of ground coupling of atmospheric acoustic waves. Key Points: A bright meteor event near Granada has been recorded at 44 seismic stations at local distancesSeismic location of the terminal burst using the ERA5 atmospheric model agrees with triangulation from regional meteor camerasWaveforms show large differences between nearby stations, suggesting an important imprint of local coupling and multipathing effects [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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