HIGH SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION OPTICAL SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE OF METEOROID FRAGMENTATION

A digital image intensified CCD camera with an electronically gated image intensifier was used to produce very short duration images of meteors. The observational system employed a 0.40 m F/4.5 Newtonian telescope to obtain high spatial resolution. A second intensified CCD camera was used to yield height information using parallax. At a typical meteor height one pixel (for the vertically oriented system) corresponded to about 1.1 m. A sampling of 59 mainly sporadic meteors was analyzed. There is clear variability from meteor to meteor, with many meteors (nearly 50%) showing only a small amount of wake, while some meteors (approximately 20%) have the off segments completely filled in.     

A low cost meteor observation system using radio forward scattering and the interferometry technique

We present a low cost meteor observation system based on the radio forward scattering and interferometry technique at Kochi University of Technology (KUT). The system can be a suitable model for low budget educational institutes that target practical learning of astronomical objects and upper atmospheric characteristics. The system methodology for the automatic counting of meteor echoes, filtering noise and detecting meteor echo directions is described. Detection of the meteor echo directions, which is the basic element for determining the meteor trajectories and the orbital parameters of parent comets, is based on a software system developed for analysis of phase differences detected by interferometry. Randomly selected observation samples measured by the radio interferometer are compared to simultaneous optical observations by video cameras to verify the system accuracy. Preliminary error analysis revealed that the system accuracy is directly related to the duration of observed meteor echoes. Eighty percent of meteor echo samples with durations longer than 3 s showed agreement in azimuth and elevation angles measurements to within a 10° error range, while meteor echo samples with shorter durations showed lower agreement levels probably due to the low system sampling resolution of 0.1 s. The reasonable agreement level of meteor echoes with duration longer than 3 s demonstrated the applicability of the system methodology. Accurate observation of shorter duration meteor echoes could possibly be achieved by improving the system resolution.     

A Method for Determining the Coordinates of Meteor Shower Radiants from Meteor Radar Goniometric Data

We discuss a new method for measuring the coordinates of meteor shower radiants from meteor radar data. The method uses a high accuracy of radar goniometer measurements of one of the angular coordinates for meteor radiants and collective properties of incident meteor showers. It is based on a computer technology of searching for the coordinates of radiants using the intersections of meteor position lines on the celestial sphere and filtering nonrandom combinations of these intersections. The method allows the following: to detect meteor showers with a rate of more than 5 per day of observations and to separate meteor groups from different meteor showers with different radiants and velocities. The method makes it possible to increase the angular resolution from 10° × 10° achieved with a quasi-tomographic technique to 2° × 2°, with a prospect of a further increase in the accuracy through the individual reduction of separated meteor groups. We use the reduction of one-day-long observations during maximum activity of the Geminids meteor shower in 1993 to illustrate the potentialities of the method. We show an example of detecting a weak meteor shower that was active during December 1993.     

The observed characteristics of radio-echoes from overdense meteor trains

Observational data relating to the duration of radio-echoes from overdense meteor trains are presented and discussed, with particular reference to the differences between daytime and night-time conditions. Experimental distributions of echo-duration for different meteor showers observed at various radio frequencies have been collected from several sources. When interpreted in terms of duration distribution theory (which, as developed here, represents an important revision of previous theories) these data are shown to be consistent with the assumption that free electrons are removed by an apparent three-body attachment mechanism, at a rate which is approximately three times higher at night than during the day. The absolute rates which emerge from this analysis depend on the exact meteor ionization model adopted, but for the most probable range of models our values are found to be lower than those obtained by other workers by an order of magnitude. The duration of echoes from bright meteors associated with the Quadrantid shower has been observed to increase considerably some 30 min after sunrise in the meteor region. This phenomenon is associated with a decrease in the mean range of the echoes. The results indicate that deionization is particularly rapid below ˜80 km at night, and may no longer appear as a three-body attachment in this region.

It is shown that the observed echo characteristics cannot be satisfactorily explained in terms of the well-known processes of direct recombination or simple attachment to atmospheric molecules, indicating that a much more complex ion-chemistry is required.     

OPTICAL TRAIL WIDTH MEASUREMENTS OF FAINT METEORS

We report results from two station, short-baseline (< 100 m) high resolution measurements of faint meteors (limiting meteor magnitude +9) with the goal of measuring their optical trail widths. Meteors were observed using two 0.40 m Newtonian telescopes (field of view ˜0.4 degrees) equipped with image intensifiers. Both telescopes were vertically oriented in a fixed mount and pointed to the same field of view. One system used a gated image intensified camera allowing the transverse velocity component to be measured. The widest trail captured, out of a total of 34 common events measured by both optical systems, had a full-width to half-maximum of 1.37±0.71 m. The widest trail overall was captured by the gated system only, and was found to have a full-width of ∼ ∼10 m. The brightness variation across this trail was found to be best represented by a Lorentzian. Most trails were smaller than our resolution limit and hence we could only place upper limits on their optical width. These were generally less than 1 m after correction for instrumental effects. Four meteors were found to have heights near 65 km and very low transverse velocities. These may be indicative of a largely unreported high density asteroidal component at these faint meteor magnitudes.     

Results from the AIM-IT Meteor Tracking System

The recent development and data collection results of the Astrobiology Instrumentation for Meteor Imaging and Tracking (AIM-IT) system, has demonstrated an ability to point narrow field-of-view instruments at transient events such as meteors. AIM-IT uses the principle of tracking moving objects via a paired set of relay mirrors along with an integrated hardware/software solution, to acquire and track meteors in real-time. Development of the instrument has progressed from a prototype rocker-box system through more recent use of a fast response mirror system during several meteor shower campaigns. Several narrow field of view instruments have been deployed using AIM-IT including high spatial resolution video, high frame rate video, and meteor spectrographic equipment. Analysis of the imagery shows evidence for meteor fragmentation in as many as 20% of the meteors tracked thus far. The success of the AIM-IT technology in tracking meteors during their luminous flight provides a new tool in enhancing the capabilities and data volume that can be obtained with existing narrow field of view instruments.     

Methods and statistics of TV observations of telescopic meteors

A review of TV and telescopic methods of meteor observations and of the problems of meteor astronomy addressed using these methods is presented. A meteor patrol developed at the Astronomical Observatory of Odessa National University and based on a Schmidt telescope and a TV detector is described. The meteor patrol allows meteor events to be recorded with a time resolution of 0.04 s. The investigated characteristics of the patrol are reported, and some aspects of the methods of observations and reduction employed are considered. The results of observations made during the period 2003–2004 are reported. A total of 368 meteors were recorded on 1093 individual frames during a total patrol time of 679 hours within a 36′ × 48′ field of view. The statistical data for meteor observations are reported, and classification of meteor images is presented. The specific features of some recorded meteor events are analyzed.     

Meteor44 Video Meteor Photometry

Meteor44 is a software system developed at MSFC for the calibration and analysis of video meteor data. The photometric range of the (8 bit) video data is extended from a visual magnitude range of from 8 to 3 to from 8 to −8 for both meteors and stellar images using saturation compensation. Camera and lens specific saturation compensation coefficients are derived from artificial variable star laboratory measurements. Saturation compensation significantly increases the number of meteors with measured intensity and improves the estimation of meteoroid mass distribution. Astrometry is automated to determine each image's plate coefficient using appropriate star catalogs. The images are simultaneously intensity calibrated from the contained stars to determine the photon sensitivity and the saturation level referenced above the atmosphere. The camera's spectral response is used to compensate for stellar color index and typical meteor spectra in order to report meteor light curves in traditional visual magnitude units. Recent efforts include improved camera calibration procedures and long focal length "streak" meteor photometry. Meteor44 has been used to analyze data from the 2001, 2002 and 2003 MSFC Leonid observational campaigns as well as several lesser showers.     

Multi-Instrument Observations of Bright Meteors in the Czech Republic

We present detailed data on 8 bright meteors recorded simultaneously by different observational techniques. All meteors were recorded by all-sky cameras at the Czech stations of the European Fireball Network and by image intensified TV cameras placed at Ondrejov and Kunzak observatories. As well as direct photographic and LLLTV recordings, most of meteors were recorded also by the spectral TV camera and some also by photographic spectral cameras. For 6 cases, lightcurves from radiometers with very high time resolution (1200 s⁻¹) are also available. From all these detections we found a significant difference between TV and photographic beginning heights. TV beginnings are in average about 40 km higher than the photographic ones. We found that meteor brightness is up to 2 magnitudes higher in the photographic system than in the TV system. This difference for high velocity meteors is mainly caused by the presence of strong Ca⁺ lines in the blue part of the spectrum, where the image intensifier is only marginally sensitive. At heights above 110 km, the Na line is usually brighter than the Mg line, while at lower heights both lines have comparable brightness. In one of two captured spectra of short duration luminous trains, a small initial brightening of the Mg and Na lines caused by recombination processes was observed.     

Atmospheric behavior and extreme beginning heights of the thirteen brightest photographic Leonid meteors from the ground‐based expedition to China

Abstract— Precise atmospheric trajectories including dynamic and photometric data on thirteen of the brightest Leonid fireballs have been determined from the double‐station photographic observations of Leonid meteors during the ground‐based expedition to China in 1998 November. the expedition was organized as a collaboration between the dutch and chinese academy of sciences and was supported by the leonid multi‐instrument aircraft campaign (mac) program (jenniskens and butow, 1999). All data presented here were taken at Xinglong Observatory and at a remote station, Lin Ting Kou near Beijing, on the night of 1998 November 16/17. At the Xinglong station, photographic cameras were accompanied by an all‐sky television camera equipped with an image intensifier and 15 mm fish‐eye objective in order to obtain precise timings for all observed meteors up to magnitude +2. Whereas beginning heights of photographed meteors are all lower than 130 km, those observed by the all‐sky television system are at ～160 km, and for three brightest events, even > 180 km. Such high beginnings for meteors have never before been observed. We also obtained a precise dynamic single‐body solution for the Leonid meteor 98003, including the ablation coefficient, which is an important material and structural quantity (0.16 s² km^?2). From this and from known photometry, we derived a density of this meteoroid of 0.7 g/cm³. Also, all PE coefficients indicate that these Leonid meteors belonged to the fireball group IIIB, which is typical for the most fragile and weak interplanetary bodies. From a photometric study of the meteor lightcurves, we found two typical shapes of light curves for these Leonid meteors.     

Associations of Meteor Microshowers or as the Kazan Radar “SEES” Radiants on Northern Celestial Hemisphere

The discrete quasitomographic method of the analysis of the interferometric data of meteor radar gives us the possibility of measuring coordinates and velocities of very weak meteor showers with a 2 × 2 square degree resolution on the celestial sphere. The minimal rate of the meteors in each microstream is five meteors per day. At such sensitivity, basic distinctions between irregularities of the sporadic background and meteor streams vanish. More than 1000 of the detected microshowers per month are associated with a combination of (a) the large known meteor showers, (b) the weaker known meteor showers and (c) till now unknown associations of microshowers. All microshowers regardless of association have the identical velocities, limited areas of radiation and near simultaneity of their acting dates. The results are compiled as maps of radiant distribution and average velocities of microstreams for different months. From these it is possible to see how the microshower activity for various discrete sites on the celestial sphere correlate with the behavior of the well-known meteor streams and thus to infer the orbital properties of the different microstream configurations.     

基于嵌入式人工智能设备的流星光学监测系统

流星光学监测网是定位陨石和观测火流星的基础科研设施. 流星光学监测系统利用光学相机高速采集天空图像, 使用嵌入式系统实时处理数据, 能够快速识别流星并获取流星位置和陨石落点信息, 是构成流星监测网的关键仪器. 为提高流星光学监测系统获取信息的实时性及准确性, 提出了一种基于嵌入式人工智能设备的流星光学监测系统. 该系统由软件及硬件部分组成: 硬件部分包括观测设备(商用高空抛物摄像头)以及数据处理设备(嵌入式人工智能设备); 软件部分运行于数据处理设备内, 主要包括控制界面模块、流星监测模块、数据管理模块. 实际工作时, 摄像头采集天空视频信息, 流星监测模块从视频流中实时监测流星并存储包含流星视频的数据, 数据管理模块将流星位置信息实时传回数据中心用于预警. 观测结束后, 将原始观测数据同步至数据中心用于后续科学研究. 在整个系统中, 流星监测模块决定了整个监测系统的实时性及准确性. 该系统采用嵌入式人工智能设备与人工智能算法结合的方法构建流星监测模块. 通过使用实测数据对搭载监测模块性能进行测试, 结果表明: 流星监测模块能够达到0.28%的低误检率以及100%的召回率, 且数据处理速度达到了Mobilenetv2的8倍. 进一步将包含监测模块的整个流星光学监测系统部署于太原理工大学-张壁古堡远程天文台, 通过实测表明流星光学监测系统实用中能达到100%的召回率和较低的误检率.     

Frequency of hyperbolic and interstellar meteoroids

Hyperbolic meteor orbits from the catalog of 64,650 meteors observed by the multistation video meteor network located in Japan (SonotaCo 2009) have been investigated with the aim of determining the relation between the frequency of hyperbolic and interstellar meteors. The proportion of hyperbolic meteors in the data decreased significantly (from 11.58% to 3.28%) after a selection of quality orbits, which shows its dependence on the quality of observations. Initially, the hyperbolic orbits were searched for meteors unbound due to planetary perturbation. It was determined that 22 meteors from the 7489 hyperbolic orbits in the catalog (and 2 from the selection of the orbits with the highest quality) had had a close encounter with a planet, none of which, however, produced essential changes in their orbits. Similarly, the fraction of hyperbolic orbits in the data, which could be hyperbolic by reason of a meteor's interstellar origin, was determined to be at most 3.9 × 10^?2. From the statistical point of view, the vast majority of hyperbolic meteors in the database have definitely been caused by inaccuracy in the velocity determination. This fact does not necessarily assume great measurement errors, since, especially near the parabolic limit, a small error in the value of the heliocentric velocity of a meteor can create an artificial hyperbolic orbit that does not really exist. The results show that the remaining 96% of meteoroids with apparent hyperbolic orbits belong to the solar system meteoroid population. This is also supported by their high abundance (about 50%) among the meteor showers.     

Flux of very faint Leonid meteors observed with a 3 meter liquid mirror telescope intensified charge‐coupled device system

Abstract— We have used a 3.0 m diameter liquid mirror telescope (LMT) coupled to a microchannel plate image‐intensified charge‐coupled device (CCD) detector to study the 1999 Leonid meteor shower. This is the largest aperture optical instrument ever utilized for meteor detection. While the observing system is sensitive down to stars of +18 astronomical magnitude under optimum conditions, when corrections for meteor motion are applied the majority of the meteors collected fall in the absolute magnitude range from +5 to +10, corresponding to photometric masses from about 10^?7 to 10^?9 kg. This is largely due to the fact that the field of view of the LMT was only 0.28°, so that only a small portion of the luminous meteor trail was recorded. While the flux of these small (1.4 times 10^?9 kg) Leonid meteors is low (on the order of one Leonid meteor per hour per square kilometer perpendicular to the Leonid), we do have clear evidence that the Leonid stream contains particles in the mass range studied here. The data showed a possibly significant peak in Leonid flux (9.3 ± 3.5) for the 1 h period from 11:00 to 12:00 u.t. 1999 November 17 (solar longitude 234.653 to 234.695, epoch 2000.0), although the main trend of these results is a broad low‐level Leonid activity. There is evidence that small meteoroids are more widely distributed in the Leonid stream, as would be expected from cometary ejection stream models. As would be expected from an extrapolation of mass distribution indices for brighter meteors, the vast majority of meteors at this size are sporadic. The LMT is a powerful detector of sporadic meteors, with an average non‐Leonid detection rate of more than 140 meteor events per hour.     

Accuracy of meteoroid speeds determined using a Fresnel transform procedure

New methods of determining meteor speeds using radar are giving results with an accuracy of better that 1%. It is anticipated that this degree of precision will allow determinations of pre-atmospheric speeds of shower meteors as well as estimates of the density of the meteoroids. The next step is to determine under what conditions these new measurements are reliable.Errors in meteoroid speeds determined using a Fresnel transform procedure applied to radar meteor data are investigated. The procedure determines the reflectivity of a meteor trail as a function of position, by application of the Fresnel transform to the time series of a radar reflection from the trail observed at a single detection station. It has previously been shown that this procedure can be used to determine the speed of the meteoroid, by finding the assumed speed that gives a reflectivity image that best meets physical expectations. It has also been shown that speeds determined by this method agree with those from the well established “pre-t_o phase” method when applied to reflections with a high signal to noise ratio. However, there is a discrepancy between the two methods for weaker reflections. A method to investigate the discrepancy is described and applied, with the finding that the speed determined by using the Fresnel transform procedure is more accurate for weaker reflections than that given by the “pre-t_o phase” method.     

IAU Meteor Database of photographic orbits – version 2003

The IAU Meteor Data Center in Lund has acted as a central depository for meteor orbits obtained by photographic, video and radar techniques. The database of precisely reduced photographic meteors contains data on 4581 meteor orbits obtained by 17 different stations or groups in the period 1936–1996. The orbital and geophysical data are available in two separate files as well as in an alternative file with the merged data. In various studies of meteoroid streams as well as in studies of the sporadic meteor background, it is often necessary to utilize both the orbital and the geophysical data files. Since the database is a compilation of partial, not perfectly compatible catalogues from many observing stations, the merging of parameters from one data set to another may sometimes present problems. The present contribution is a note on some problems encountered in the merging procedure. Moreover, it is evident that the database includes a small amount of erroneous data – either in the observations or in the subsequent data reductions. The latter error is not surprising in view of the lack of modern computers at several stations in the past. A final, corrected version of the IAU MDC Lund photographic meteor orbits (eq. 2000.0) can now be requested through the homepage of the Astronomical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences (http://www.astro.sk/~ne/IAUMDC/Ph2003/database.html).     

A research of the Orionid meteor shower by television observations in 2006–2008

The results of observations of the Orionid meteor shower are given in the period from 2006 to 2008. Observations were carried out using a highly sensitive camera FAVOR (FAst Variability Optical Registrator) a limiting magnitude of above +11.0^m (for stars) and a field of view of 18° × 20°. Over the period of the shower from October 2 to November 7, 2006–2008, there were 3713 meteors. 449 of these meteors were associated with the Orionid meteor shower. The distributions of Orionid meteors by the stellar magnitude is presented. It turned out that most of meteors (65%) of this shower have a brightness of +5.0^m-+7.0^m. On each night of observation the index of meteor activity was calculated for Orionids.     

Interaction of the lower thermosphere with the solid component of the interplanetary medium

We consider in this paper the motion of small meteoroids near to the Earth taking into account gravitation, acceleration and heating of particles in the upper atmosphere, and also the processes of thermal radiation, sputtering and evaporation.It is concluded that during an encounter of the Earth with a meteor stream a dust cloud can be formed only at very small geocentric velocities of the particles.We also carry out calculation of the ion-formation rate in the atmosphere due to the collision of ablated meteor atoms and air molecules reflected from a meteoroid with air molecules encountered. Meteor ionization makes the contribution necessary to the maintenance of the high E-region ionization. During annual meteor showers the rate of meteor ion-formation increases by not more than four times. Additional night sources of ionization of air molecules influence the relative number of atmospheric and meteor ions in the E-region. The contribution of the kinetic energy of meteor matter to the heating of the upper atmosphere is evaluated.     

Radiants of the Leonids 1999 and 2001 Obtained by Lltv Systems Using Automatic Software Tools

Both amateur and professional meteor groups are more frequently using Low-Light level TV (LLTV) systems to record meteors. Double-station observations can yield orbit data. However, data analysis normally is still done by hand and thus time consuming. This paper addresses the question of whether available automated tools can be used to determine reasonably accurate orbits with minimum human intervention. The European Space Agency performed several observing campaigns to observe the Leonid meteor stream. In November 1999, the ESA meteor group was stationed at two locations in Southern Spain, in November 2001 at two stations close to Broome in North-Western Australia. Double-station observations with LLTV systems were conducted. The data was recorded on S-VHS video tapes. The tapes were processed using automatic detection software from which meteor heights, velocities and radiants were computed. This paper shows the results for the two maximum nights. The radiants determined in 1999 show a very large scatter due to unfortunate observing geometry and inaccurate position determination since one of the cameras was moving because of the wind. The 2001 data is excellent and the radiant was determined to be at RA = 153.96°±0.3° and Dec = 21.09°±0.2°. The error bars for individual meteor radiants are about 0.2° to 0.4°. This demonstrates that is indeed possible to determine good radiant positions using totally automated tools. Orbits, on the other hand, are not well defined due to the fact that the velocity of individual meteors shows large errors. Reasons for this are described.