We report on the design of a meteorite impact simulator and evaluate the first results. Artificial meteorites were dropped on the ground with realistic terminal velocities. The soil disturbance and impact pit remained recognizable for approximately 3 months. These experiments foster our understanding of impact dynamics in soft deformable top soils, and contribute observables to improve the success rate of meteorite search campaigns.@en

The computation of the dark flight of a bright fireball requires knowledge of the atmospheric parameters. In particular wind and wind direction as a function of height are crucial for an accurate trajectory. In this paper we compare different sources of sounding balloon and model data, and study the effect on the dark flight.@en