Analysis of modern observations of meteor showers based on PTM methods

The work is focused on the analysis of modern observations of meteoroids included in the data bank formed by both professional researchers and amateur astronomers. Based on the modern physical theory of meteoroids (PTM), a new method for analyzing measurements developed, which provides the accuracy comparable with the results of radar observations. Due to the fact that the accuracy of the new method for analyzing meteoroids observations has increased significantly, it became possible to process observations of the Perseid and Leonid showers over a period of 120 years. The use of PTM made it possible for the first time to explain the distribution of meteor echo signals observed at an altitude of 2 MHz, at which the upper part of this distribution refers to an altitude of 140 km. In the process of work, a database of orbital characteristics of meteoroids was created. A method has been developed for modeling the probability of hitting a certain area of a meteor particle with a mass greater than a certain specified value and determining the density of a meteor shower from radio observations as well as a new “tomography” method for calculating the density distribution of sporadic meteors in the sky using radar observations of meteors at the same station with a goniometer. The method allows calculating the density of a meteor shower on the celestial sphere with an angular resolution of 2°. The use of these methods served as a proof that the distribution density of meteoroid showers on the celestial sphere has two planes of symmetry: the first coincides with the plane of the ecliptic, passing through the poles of the Earth, the other one is perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic.

A Mathematical Model for Simulating Meteor Showers

This paper presents a mathematical model to simulate the trajectory of a meteor as seen by a single observer located anywhere on Earth. Our strategy is to define a new coordinate system, called Radiant Coordinate System, which is centered on the observer and has its z-axis aligned with the radiant. This new coordinate system allows us to describe the meteors’ path by applying a reduced number of equations in a simple solution. We also present a computational implementation of this model, which is developed as a new plug-in of Stellarium, a free and open-source planetarium software. Moreover, we show that our model can be used to simulate both meteor showers and sporadic meteors. In particular, meteor showers are simulated using data provided by real catalogs.

Determination of meteor-head echo trajectories using the interferometric capabilities of MAARSY

During the flight of a meteoroid through the neutral atmosphere, the high kinetic energy is sufficient to ionize the meteoric constituents. Radar echoes coming from plasma irregularities surrounding the meteoroids are called meteor-head echoes, and can be detected by HPLA radar systems. Measurements of these echoes were conducted with MAARSY (Middle Atmosphere Alomar Radar System) in December 2010. The interferometric capabilities of the radar system permit the determination of the meteor trajectories within the radar beam with high accuracy. The received data are used to gain information about entry velocities, source radiants, observation heights and other meteoroid parameters. Our preliminary results indicate that the majority of meteors have masses between 10−10 and 10−3 kg and the mean masses of the sporadic meteors and Gemenids meteors are ∼10−8 kg.

Development of the mesospheric Na layer at 69° N during the Geminids meteor shower 2010

The ECOMA sounding rocket campaign in 2010 was performed to investigate the charge state and number density of meteoric smoke particles during the Geminids meteor shower in December 2010. The ALOMAR Na lidar contributed to the campaign with measurements of sodium number density, temperature and line-of-sight wind between 80 and 110 km altitude over Andøya in northern Norway. This paper investigates a possible connection between the Geminids meteor shower and the mesospheric sodium layer. We compare with data from a meteor radar and from a rocket-borne in situ particle instrument on three days. Our main result is that the sodium column density is smaller during the Geminids meteor shower than the winter average at the same latitude. Moreover, during two of the three years considered, the sodium column density decreased steadily during these three weeks of the year. Both the observed decrease of Na column density by 30% and of meteoric smoke particle column density correlate well with a corresponding decrease of sporadic meteor echoes. We found no correlation between Geminids meteor flux rates and sodium column density, nor between sporadic meteors and Na column density (R = 0.25). In general, we found the Na column density to be at very low values for winter, between 1.8 and 2.6 × 1013 m−2. We detected two meteor trails containing sodium, on 13 December 2010 at 87.1 km and on 19 December 2010 at 84 km. From these meteor trails, we estimate a global meteoric Na flux of 121 kg d−1 and a global total meteoric influx of 20.2 t d−1.