Seismic detection of superbolide explosion in the atmosphere

• download

   On July 23, 2008 at 14:45 UT, many eyewitnesses observed in the sky of
   Tajikistan a rear phenomenon, a bright bolide and its dust train, colored
   by the beams of the setting sun. Flash brightness from the explosion had
   the magnitude of -20.7. According to the pictures from the superbolide
   dust train at the explosion height, trail drift velocity in the atmosphere
   was obtained; it was 17.6 m/s in the southern direction. On the basis of
   geographical coordinates of flash projection on the Earth surface,
   obtained by an optical system of NASA satellite, the superbolide explosion
   height was determined, it was about 35 km. At Gissar analogous
   seismo-station and at 4 digital seismo-stations of the Geophysical Service
   of Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan Republic, located at the distances
   from 45 to 210 km from the event epicenter, a seismic signal with the
   magnitude of about 2.5, generated by a superbolide explosion in the
   atmosphere, was registered. Superbolide explosions in the atmosphere with
   the energies exceeding 0.03 kiloton of trinitrotoluol equivalent have
   already been registered at current digital station. The distances, when
   such registration is possible, is of several thousand of kilometers, as it
   was shown by the event on February 15, 2013, associated with the great
   Ural meteorite. Stations of Tajikistan seismic network received the signal
   with the magnitude of more than 3 from the explosion in the atmosphere of
   the Ural meteorite 12 minutes after it.