NASA and the U.S. Air Force reached an agreement that will ensure scientists have regular access to military tracking data on meteor explosions inside Earth's atmosphere.
In February 2013, a meteor explosion that occurred in Chelyabinsk, Russia, prompted scientists to look for more information to analyze the threat of meteors, fireballs and other near-Earth objects (NEOs).
The U.S. military's various spacecrafts are equipped with sensors that can see meteor bursts within Earth's atmosphere. In 2013, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) introduced a website using this government data to facilitate information exchange regarding meteor explosions. However, in 2014, the website showed no signs of activity due to financial issues and decreased personnel.
To address this problem, the U.S. Air Force Space Command's Air, Space and Cyberspace Operations board signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Science Mission directorate of NASA. The memorandum will guarantee that the scientific community will have access to a steady stream of data about meteor explosions, Space.com reported.
A representative from the U.S. Air Force Space Command's Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) stated that data on meteor explosions, also called bolide, will be processed and disseminated by another team at Schriever Air Force Base.
Bolide data analysis is imperative because scientists found out that the Earth is on the other end of significant amounts of asteroid and comet material, which is referred to as spacefall. Scientists are hoping to spot spacefall trends and map out its rate through data provided by the military.
"The Air Force has maintained a database of all detected events. The archived raw data requires very intricate and specific processing through a software program so that it can be useful to an external organization," the SMC representative told Space.com.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the U.S. Air Force plans to request for additional funding to support the operations of three surveillance satellites used to track objects in space.
