research
A Half-Hertz Pulse Located the Fireball
A small network of university and private infrasound sensors used timing differences to identify the May meteor over Cape Cod Bay and estimate its blast altitude.
Summary
A small network of university and private infrasound sensors used timing differences to identify the May meteor over Cape Cod Bay and estimate its blast altitude.
Several Raspberry Boom sensors around Boston recorded roughly one and a half cycles of a 0.4-hertz pressure pulse from the May 30 meteor. By comparing arrival timing with sensor distance, the authors infer the source direction, location and acoustic power, placing the atmospheric fireball blast between 40 and 50 kilometers altitude. Their estimate assigns about 5 to 14 percent of the total fireball energy to the acoustic event. The analysis concerns one event and a particular low-cost sensor network; the energy fraction is model-derived rather than a direct measurement of the meteor's total energy. It nevertheless demonstrates how distributed infrasound can turn a fleeting flash into a locatable physical signal.
Why it matters
A small network of university and private infrasound sensors used timing differences to identify the May meteor over Cape Cod Bay and estimate its blast altitude.
Limits and context
No additional limitation was separately recorded.
Key claims
A small network of university and private infrasound sensors used timing differences to identify the May meteor over Cape Cod Bay and estimate its blast altitude.
Evidence: source-2026-10-26-015
Sources
- arXiv preprint 2610.31742, original v1arXiv · primary research
Corrections
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