[Elfsea] Update on infrasound signals from the Columbia]

[Sluggy]

Hello again!

My friend at SMU has updated his page about the seismographic info from
the Columbia explosion. Here is his email to the robotics club list....

Sluggy!

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [DPRG] Update on infrasound signals from the Columbia
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 17:55:20 -0600 (CST)
From: "David P. Anderson" <dpa at io.isem.smu.edu>
To: dprglist at dprg.org

Howdy

New analysis of the infrasound signals recorded by SMU of
the breakup of the space shuttle Columbia:

http://www.geology.smu.edu/~dpa-www/columbia/update.html

The seismologists have determined that the multiple peaks
recorded over 12 minutes are in fact "multi-path" signals,
echos if you will, of a single explosion which occurred
at 13:59.4 GMT a few kilometers west and north of Lubbock,
Texas.  That is the same time at which NASA lost telemetry.

Simulations of the infrasound signal of a 1 kT explosion
at 1175 kilometers distance done by the Los Alamos National
Laboratory look remarkably like the signals picked up at
Lajitas, and include multiple "echos", refractions really,
from the stratosphere and thermosphere.  Seismologists
estimate the Columbia explosion to be a decompression event
with the force equivalent of 20 to 50 pounds of TNT.

This is what might be expected, for example, if a wing tore
off in flight and caused a sudden "decompression" of the shuttle.

Seismic recordings of the signal heard by Texas residents (recorded
by Geotech who just happened to be testing a seismometer that
morning) have been analyzed as a series of 'N' waves, sonic
booms, generated by the re-entry of multiple pieces of shuttle
fragments as the Columbia disintegrated.

regards,
dpa

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