This is the live-telemetry companion to the 3D flight-path visualization of the same meteoroid — a distinct model driven by a real-time step-by-step integrator with stacked strip charts, instead of a precomputed trajectory played back over a light curve. Both share the same governing physics.
Atmosphere: ρ(z) = ρ0·exp(-z/H) H = 8500 m
Drag: dv/dt = -(Cd·A·ρ·v²)/(2m) - g·sin(θ)
Ablation: dm/dt = -(σ/2)·A·ρ·v³ (Bronshten single-body form, uses area not mass)
Heat flux: q = k·sqrt(ρ/R)·v³ (Sutton-Graves stagnation-point approximation)
- Ablation uses cross-sectional area A, not the remaining mass — the standard single-body meteor-physics form. As the body loses mass its radius r = (3m/4πρ_comp)^(1/3) shrinks, which shrinks A and self-limits further ablation.
- Heat flux follows the Sutton-Graves convective-heating approximation, proportional to the square root of atmospheric density and the cube of velocity, and inversely to the square root of the body's own radius — smaller, faster bodies experience far higher peak heating per unit area.
- Composition sets the material density used for the radius calculation: a denser iron body is more compact for the same mass, so it has less drag and heats less per unit mass, letting bigger fragments survive to the ground.
- Outcome is classified live: burned up (mass below 0.05% of initial before reaching the ground), air-burst (heat flux crosses a fragmentation threshold while still well above ground), or meteorite — reached the ground.