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Validation of infrasonic waveform modeling using observations of the STS107 failure upon reentry
Author(s) -
McKenna Mihan H.,
Herrin Eugene T.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2005gl024801
Subject(s) - waveform , explosive material , arrival time , geology , geodesy , infrasound , signal (programming language) , amplitude , seismology , travel time , meteorology , acoustics , physics , computer science , telecommunications , optics , geography , radar , archaeology , transport engineering , engineering , programming language
On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas. Recorded at the TXIAR seismo‐acoustic array, the signal consisted of multiple arrivals from a single explosive event. The location of the explosion was estimated from the telemetered travel path recorded by NASA. The location in space and time was combined with atmospheric profiles generated by NRL‐G2S and MSIS‐90/HWM for the given day and model the observed waveform using InfraMAP. The normal mode modeled waveform closely resembled the observed waveform, with multiple arrival peaks spanning the same time period found in the observation, as well as having only a three‐second difference between last peak times. This translates to 0.33% error in total travel time. A ray trace eigenray was found with a travel time consistent with the observed arrival packet.