Project Details
Description
December 9, 1997 an extremely bright meteor was observed over Southwest Greenland, A few days later the Niels Bohr Institute for Astronomy, Physics, and Geophysics, University of Copenhagen, encouraged DCRS contributing remote sensing techniques to the meteorite search. DCRS decided to join the search with the aim of locating the impact crater using ERS-2 satellite SAR data and airborne EMISAR data.
After the processing of the first ERS data the location of the impact site - as estimated from several eyewitnesses - was moved several hundred kilometers to Frederikshåb Isblink. Subsequently many smaller adjustments of the estimated location followed. Based on the satellite SAR data is was concluded that no impact crater could be located from the amplitude data and that a poor correlation (probably caused by environmental factors) between data acquired before and after the impact prevented interferometric change detection techniques to be applied.
On January 4, an area of approximately 10,000 square kilometers was mapped by EMISAR. The total amount of data acquired approaches 100 GB. By February 5 the extensive processing of all the polarimetric L-band data had been completed. The images were subsequently merged into a mosaic, which was used by the field expedition that searched a small area around the most likely impact site in the summer of 1998. The polarimetric images show numerous nunataks, crevasses, and moraine ridges in the area where fragments might have fallen. However, since no features that appear related to a meteorite could be identified, the interferometric data were not processed into digital elevation maps.
Both the Niels Bohr Institute and the Planetarium now believe that the meteor has disintegrated in the atmosphere and that possible material is located in a large strewn field.
(Related projects - see: www.dcrs.dtu.dk).
After the processing of the first ERS data the location of the impact site - as estimated from several eyewitnesses - was moved several hundred kilometers to Frederikshåb Isblink. Subsequently many smaller adjustments of the estimated location followed. Based on the satellite SAR data is was concluded that no impact crater could be located from the amplitude data and that a poor correlation (probably caused by environmental factors) between data acquired before and after the impact prevented interferometric change detection techniques to be applied.
On January 4, an area of approximately 10,000 square kilometers was mapped by EMISAR. The total amount of data acquired approaches 100 GB. By February 5 the extensive processing of all the polarimetric L-band data had been completed. The images were subsequently merged into a mosaic, which was used by the field expedition that searched a small area around the most likely impact site in the summer of 1998. The polarimetric images show numerous nunataks, crevasses, and moraine ridges in the area where fragments might have fallen. However, since no features that appear related to a meteorite could be identified, the interferometric data were not processed into digital elevation maps.
Both the Niels Bohr Institute and the Planetarium now believe that the meteor has disintegrated in the atmosphere and that possible material is located in a large strewn field.
(Related projects - see: www.dcrs.dtu.dk).
| Status | Finished |
|---|---|
| Effective start/end date | 15/12/1997 → 15/07/1998 |
Collaborative partners
- Technical University of Denmark (lead)
- University of Copenhagen (Project partner)
- Tycho Brahe Planetarium (Project partner)
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