PSI Senior Scientist Marc Fries is using Doppler weather radar data to revolutionize the recovery of meteorites. Fries used weather radar information, shown above from April 22, 2012 in Northern California, to identify the Sutter’s Mill meteorite fall and direct scientists to the site where more than 60 specimens totaling two pounds were recovered. Fries and his team have also used weather radar data to identify and locate meteorite falls at Battle Mountain, Nev., Novato, Calif. near San Francisco, and Addison, Ala.
Finding and collecting meteorites soon after their arrival on Earth is important for research. “Rainfall washes away some of the most interesting parts of meteorites. Any very reactive minerals will corrode, like the oldhamite found in Sutter’s Mill, and many light organic species like amino acids – important for the study of the early Earth – are simply washed out of the rock,” Fries said. “Weather radar detection allows us to not only collect meteorites that would otherwise go undiscovered, but we can get to them rapidly enough to preserve these important compounds.”
