Analysis of June 2, 2016 bolide event

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the June 2, 2016 superbolide over Arizona using multi-sensor observations, providing detailed trajectory, velocity, and physical characteristics of the meteoroid, including its orbit and fragmentation behavior.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive analysis combining multi-spectral, camera, and dash cam data to characterize the bolide's trajectory, physical properties, and orbit, which is novel for this event.

Findings

The bolide began luminous flight at approximately 100 km altitude.

The meteoroid had an initial mass of about 15 metric tonnes.

Its orbit did not match any known asteroid family.

Abstract

On June 2, 2016 at 10h56m UTC, a $-20.4 \pm 0.2$ magnitude superbolide was observed over Arizona. Fragments were located a few days later and the meteorites were given the name Dishchii'bikoh. We present analysis of this event based on 3 cameras and a multi-spectral sensor observations by the SkySentinel continuous fireball-monitoring camera network, supplemented by a dash cam footage and a fragmentation model. The bolide began its luminous flight at an altitude of $100.2 \pm 0.4$ km at coordinates $\phi = 34.555 \pm 0.002^\circ$N planetographic latitude and $\lambda = 110.459 \pm 0.002^\circ$W longitude, and it had a pre-atmospheric velocity of $17.4 \pm 0.3$ km/s. The calculated orbital parameters indicate that the meteoroid did not belong to any presently known asteroid family. From our calculations, the impacting object had an initial mass of $14.8 \pm 1.7$ metric tonnes with an estimated initial diameter of $2.03 \pm 0.12$ m.