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q THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO ALBUQUERQUE INSTITUTE OF METEORITICS May 23 To: Lte Colonel Doyle Rees, Commanding Officer 17th District, 0. S. I. From: Lincoln LaPaz, Director Institute of Meteoritics Subject: Anomalous Luminous tena (Seventh Report) 1. In the second report of this series, dated 1948, December 20, the writer listed ten significant differences between the bri tally-moving fireballs observed in the interval 194 typical meteors. These differences were the followi (1) The horizontal nature of the pat: fireballs is most unusual, Genuine meteor in horizontal paths. » 1950 green ho (2) Again the very low height of the December fireball in section 2 above sets it off in sharp contrast from the cgenult meteors for which hei mally observed. ghts of the order of 40 or more miles are (3) The veloc determined for the fireball of December 12 is much less than the velocities determined from typical meteors (and yet is considerably greater than the sp he V-2 Rockets or jet planes or of conventional flares). (4) In the case of meteorites that penetra as that determined for the fireball of December 12, th minous phenomena are always accompanied by very violent noises whatever have been observed in co s December fireballs so far investigated. (Note added on Possible exceptions to the noiselessness of green fi incidents of 1949, January 30, and 1949, December (5) Genuine meteors a lly show re brightness, beginning as visible to the observer, the end of their paths. of the observers have low levels observed lu noises. No st