Fireball And Bolide Events Reported By U.S. Government Sensors

Fireball and bolide reports from U.S. Government sensors document exceptionally bright meteors. The data includes event date, time, geographic location, altitude, velocity, and calculated total impact energy. The dataset is maintained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was last updated in May 2025.

Use Cases

• Analyze the geographic location and altitude of events to map atmospheric entry patterns.
• Model the relationship between pre-impact velocity components and calculated total impact energy.
• Study temporal trends using the date and time of each fireball event.
• Correlate approximate total optical radiated energy with event altitude and velocity at peak brightness.

Strengths

• Data is provided by authoritative U.S. Government sensors.
• Includes calculated physical metrics like total impact energy.
• Maintained and updated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Limitations

• Not a complete list of all fireball events; only the brightest are noted.
• Sample data and specific row/column counts are unavailable for assessing scale.
• Ground-based witness reports are noted as sometimes available but not guaranteed.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data summary provided by U.S. Government sensors.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2025-05-31.

Geography

Global, as detected by sensors.