A multidisciplinary study of the 17 January 2018 bolide terminal burst over southeast Michigan

A meteor that burst above Michigan in early 2018 was recorded by nearby seismometers, regional infrasonic microphones, and optical sensors. The relatively large, but sparse, infrasonic network provided a location and time for the event that was consistent with ground-truth data from the optical sensors, although uncertainty regarding the infrasonic location was large. Seismic arrival times from four local seismometers constrain the location and height of the burst to within kilometers and agree with the optical data. A widely used period-yield relation applied to 40 high signal-to-noise recordings of infrasound signals from the event at distances from 2 degrees to 12 degrees indicates a preferred yield of 2.2 tons of trinitrotoluene (TNT) equivalent with a likely range from 0.8 to 8.1 tons. The successful recording of this relatively small meteor suggests that moderate-density infrasonic networks can be used to refine occurrence statistics of bolides, although such studies will likely be complicated by uncertain source yield estimates.