Monday, July 6, 2009

Sharing Meteor Info

This blog recently reported the Pentagon was changing a policy under which it gave data from surveillance satellites to scientists when the satellites picked up meteors burning their way through the atmosphere. The satellites that gather the data are designed to monitor Earth, looking for nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, and will also detect large meteors.

According to journalist Leonard David, there will be an accomodation. Indeed, the USAF general in charge of dispensing the information says there has been no change in policy. Rather, he says, he has simply been reviewing the procedures that govern the program. Those procedures need tightening, he says, but once that's been done, the data will continue to be released to the scientific community.

He hopes the new procedures will make the data even more useful to scientists.

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