Meteor air burst
A meteor air burst is an air burst resulting from a meteor exploding mid-flight as it encounters the thicker part of the atmosphere. These types of meteors are also known as fireballs or bolides, with the brightest known as superbolides. Before entering Earth's atmosphere, these larger meteors were originally asteroids and comets of a few to several tens of metres in diameter, contrasting with the much smaller and much more common "shooting stars" that tend to burn up quickly upon atmospheric entry. The most powerful confirmed and recorded meteor air burst in the modern era  is the 1908 Tunguska event, which was a ~12 megaton explosion of a stony meteoroid about in size at an altitude of and flattened an estimated 80 million trees over a sparsely populated forest area.<ref name="SAO/NASA - ADS"></ref> Extremely bright fireballs traveling across the sky are often witnessed from a distance, such as the 1947 Sikhote-Alin meteor and the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, both in Russia. If the bolide is large enough, fragments may survive such as the Chelyabinsk meteorite. Modern developments in infrasound detection by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization and infrared Defense Support Program satellite  technology have increased the likelihood of detecting airbursts. Frequency. The table from Earth Impact Effects Program (EIEP) estimates the average frequency of airbursts and their energy yield in kilotons (kt) or megatons (Mt) of TNT equivalent. Events. Before the 20th century. While airbursts undoubtedly happened prior to the 20th century, reliable reports of such are sparse. A possible example is the 1490 Ch'ing-yang event, which had an unknown energy yield but was reportedly powerful enough to cause 10,000 deaths. Modern researchers are sceptical about the figure, but had the Tunguska event occurred over a highly populous district, it might  have caused a similar level of destruction. There has also been unofficial speculations that the mysterious 1626 Wanggongchang Explosion in the Ming dynasty capital Beijing, which reportedly killed 20,000 people and was long blamed onto potential mishandling of black gunpowder stored at the local armoury, might actually be a Tunguska-like impact event/air burst that coincidentally happened over a gunpowder factory. A study published in 2020 claimed that on 22 August 1888, a meteorite killed a man and left another paralyzed in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, as reported by the local governor to Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire . After 1901. Depending on the estimate, there were only 3–4 known airbursts in the years 1901–2000 with energy yield greater than 80 kilotons (in 1908, 1930?, 1932?, and 1963), roughly consistent with the estimate of the EIEP table. Most values for the 1930 Curuçá River event put it well below 1 megaton. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization and modern technology has improved "multiple" detection of airbursts with energy yield 1–2 kilotons every year within the last decade. The first airburst of the 21st century with yield greater than 100 kilotons came from the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, which had  an estimated diameter of 20 metres. Note: For sorting purposes, location is given in ""general:specific"" format. For example, "Europe: Spain". This table contains a chronological list of events with a large yield at least 3 kilotons since 2005, with earlier or smaller events included if widely covered in the media. Airbursts per year. As of January 2020, the number of airbursts each year since 2005, as reported in the "JPL Fireball and Bolide Reports" are: