Observations of the 2023 February 27 fireball in northern Sweden using the auroral imaging system ALIS_4D
Gabriel Borderes-Motta, Daniel Kastinen, Tima Sergienko, Urban Brändström, Johan Kero + 5 more
TLDR
Researchers used ALIS_4D to study a 2023 Swedish fireball, determining its trajectory, origin as an Apollo object, and potential strewn field.
Key contributions
- Demonstrates ALIS_4D's capability for meteor event analysis, despite being designed for auroral studies.
- Estimated fireball trajectory, computed its orbit, and identified a strewn field in northern Sweden.
- Determined the meteoroid's parent body was likely an Apollo family object via orbital similarity analysis.
- Simulated close Earth approaches as a possible cause for the meteoroid's collision course.
Why it matters
This study showcases the versatility of auroral imaging systems like ALIS_4D for diverse astronomical observations. Understanding fireball origins and trajectories is crucial for planetary defense and recovering meteorites. The findings shed light on how Earth's gravitational influence can alter meteoroid orbits.
Original Abstract
On 2023 February 27 at 18:15:55.77 UT, a bright fireball streaked across the sky above northern Sweden. The event offered a valuable opportunity to study the phenomenon using an optical system primarily designed for auroral studies, the Auroral Large Imaging System (ALIS_4D), that captured the event. In this study we show the capability of ALIS_4D to perform observations in support of meteor event analysis. We estimated the trajectory from the recorded data and computed the orbit. In addition, we investigated the origin of the meteoroid searching for its parent body. Fitting the analytical ablation model known as $α$-$β$ to the trajectory as well as incorporating local wind-field data in Monte-Carlo dark-flight simulations, strewn-fields were computed and physical properties of the meteoroid were estimated. Trajectory analyses delineate a strewn field along the border between Kiruna and Gällivare in northern Sweden. Our findings indicate that the meteoroid's parent body was likely an Apollo family object. We performed an orbital similarity analysis to identify candidate parent bodies of the fireball. Our simulations suggest that close approaches with Earth could have disrupted the meteoroid's orbit, placing it on a collision course.
📬 Weekly AI Paper Digest
Get the top 10 AI/ML arXiv papers from the week — summarized, scored, and delivered to your inbox every Monday.