Detection of a meteoroid entry into the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 1994

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Abstract
Infrared and visible wavelength sensors on board platforms operated by the U.S. Department of Defense detected an energy release over the central Pacific Ocean on February 1, 1994, estimated to be of the order of at least tens of kilotons of TNT. The event has been assessed by the Defense and Intelligence Community to be a meteoroid entry. The object broke up into several fragments and created debris clouds which were tracked for over an hour. The meteoroid entered at about 24 km/s and an angle of approximately 45° on a heading of approximately 300°. From this, the object's heliocentric orbit just prior to entry was calculated to have a semimajor axis of about 1.6 AU, an eccentricity of about 0.65, and inclination of 2.1°. The radiant energy released is modeled to be between 1.4×1013 J and 2.6×1014 J or equivalent to 3.4 to 63 kilotons of TNT, and the total kinetic energy of the meteoroid is estimated to be in the range 1.4×1014 J to 2.6×1015 J or equivalent to 34 to 630 kilotons of TNT. From the kinetic energy and if we model the object as composed of silicates with a density of 3.5 g/cm3, we derive a mass range of 5×105 to 9×106 kg and a diameter range of 6 to 17 m.

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