Meteor velocities: A new look at an old problem

Meteoroids that orbit the Sun encounter the Earth with speeds between 11 and 74 km/sec. However, the distribution of the velocities of meteoroids between these limits is not well known. The uncertainty is caused by the difficulty in measuring the true flux of meteors at the extrema of the velocity distribution. Whilst the most comprehensive measurements of meteor flux are those obtained using radio techniques, meteors with speeds > 50 km/sec occur at heights where the effects of initial radius of the trail and diffusion significantly reduce the radio reflection from the trails; on the other hand the high dependence of the collisional ionization probability on velocity (to the power 3.5) significantly inhibits the detection of meteors with speeds < 20 km/sec. Recent developments in meteor radar systems are now making it possible to measure the velocity of meteors at the extrema of the distribution. For meteoroids ablating at heights between 100 and 120 km the speed of entry can be measured at 2 and 6 MHz using a radar with a 1 km diameter array located near Adelaide; these observations will commence early in 1995. In the meantime a 54 MHz MST radar is being operated at a pulse repetition frequency of 1024 Hz to search for the presence of interstellar (speed > 74 km/sec) meteors. Both these radars exploit the phase information available prior to the closest-approach (t_o) point.     

Perseid meteor stream as observed in 1993

Presented are results of Perseid 1993 meteor shower from radar observation at Ondejov observatory. Investigation of the shower activity profiles in four echo duration intervals proved the position of dominant peak at solar longitude L = 138.°8±0.°05 (epoch 1950.0) followed by series of secondary maxima positions of which depend on examined echo duration class. Extremely low value of the mass distribution indexs = 1.27 ± 0.01 near the maximum activity peak associated with high proportion of fragmenting particles leads to the suggestion that meteor particles concentrated in this filament are younger than those which form the other parts of the stream.     

The upper ocean circulation at Great Meteor Seamount

 The circulation patterns at Meteor Seamount are investigated for implications for the marine ecosystem, using a numerical ocean circulation model. The importance of tidal amplification and rectification as well as internal tide generation has been documented in Part I of this study. Passive tracers confirm the idea that there is an area above the seamount which is largely isolated from the surroundings. Lagrangian particle trajectories are used to test and quantify the potential for retention. We find that passively advected organisms are more likely to remain in the near-surface layers above Meteor Seamount than actively migrating organisms, which might escape from the area. Finally, the importance of strong wind events on the distribution of particles is illustrated. Received: 10 January 2002 / Accepted: 2 September 2002 Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge helpful discussions with Catriona Clemmesen, Rabea Diekmann, Frank Hartmann, Inga Hense, Manfred Kaufmann and Bettina Martin. This work was funded by the DFG under contracts Me 487/38-2 and Be 1851/1-1 as part of the Great Meteor Seamount project. Responsible Editor: Jean-Marie Beckers     

Microstructures of Coal and Their Relation with Gas Outhursts——A Case Study of the Yutianbao Coal Mine, Nantong, Sichuan

Outbursts of coal and gas are closely related to coal microstructures. Part of microstructures of coal areassociated with the coal-forming environments, but most of them are produced by tectonic deformation. In thispaper the types of microstructures of coal are distinguished according to the types and features of tectonicdeformations, which is convenient and can be easily employed by geologists. Based on the SEM study on coalpetrography of No.4 and No.6 coal seams of the Yutianbao coal mine, Nantong coal field, five types of coalare distinguished: nontectonic coal, microfissure coal, microcleavage coal, cataclastic coal and mylonitic coal.The microstructural features of various types are described in detail and their geological implications and rela-tionships with coal and gas outbursts are also discussed. Special mention is made of a series of the features ofplastic deformation of mylonitic coal. It is concluded that, other things being equal, the place with myloniticcoal is the most likely risk site for outbusts.The process and mechanism of coal and gas outbursts are suggested based on a series of changes inmicrostructures of the coal after bursting. In the process of gas outbursts, the plastic deformation issuperimposed by brittle deformation, thus ejecting large quantities of coal dust.     

基于混沌理论的煤与瓦斯突出前兆时序预测研究

煤与瓦斯突出的预测研究通常是通过监测对煤与瓦斯突出的启动比较敏感的指标来进行,指标监测数据的大小和变化规律是进行预测的基础。首先介绍了一步预测和多步预测的基本原理,然后对2组瓦斯浓度数据序列利用全域法、零阶局域法和一阶局域法进行了对比计算;计算结果表明,加权一阶局域法的预测精度相对较高,该方法对混沌性强的数据序列的预测精度高于混沌性弱的数据序列的预测精度。     

Photometric and spectroscopic evolution of the symbiotic nova V1016 Cygni after its outburst

We have constructed the light curves of the symbiotic nova V1016 Cyg for the period 1971–2007 in a homogeneous photometric system close to UBV using our observations with the Zeiss-600 SAI telescope. Based on the observational data obtained with the 125-cm SAI telescope in 2000–2007, we have performed absolute spectrophotometry of the star in the range λ3700–9300 Å. The derived line intensities are compared with the data of other authors in the preceding years (1965–1988). The behavior of nebular lines showed the variations in electron density and, probably, electron temperature in the [OIII] emission region caused by a variable stellar wind from the hot component. All the available observations of the star confirm the theoretical conclusion that the nova-like outburst of V1016 Cyg was produced by a thermonuclear flash in the accreted envelope of a white dwarf.     

Video Observations of the 2006 Leonid Outburst

We carried out double station observations of the Leonid meteor shower outburst, which occurred in the morning hours of November 19, 2006. Using image-intensified cameras we recorded approximately 100 Leonid meteors. As predicted, the outburst was rich especially in fainter meteors. The activity profile shows that the peak of the outburst occurred at 4:40 ± 0:05 UT. The maximum reached flux was 0.03 meteoroids km⁻² hod⁻¹ for meteors brighter than +6.5 magnitude.     

The Dynamics of Low-Perihelion Meteoroid Streams

The Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR) has collected information on a number of weak meteor showers that have not been well characterized in the literature. A subsample of these showers (1) do not show a strong orbital resemblance to any known comets or asteroids, (2) have highly inclined orbits, (3) are at low perihelion distances ( AU) and (4) are at small semimajor axes (<2 AU). Though one might conclude that the absence of a parent object could be the result of its disruption, it is unclear how this relatively inaccessible (dynamically speaking) region of phase space might have been populated by parents in the first place. It will be shown that the Kozai secular resonance and/or Poynting–Robertson drag can modify meteor stream orbits rapidly (on time scales comparable to a precession cycle) and may be responsible for placing some of these streams into their current locations. These same effects are also argued to act on these streams so as to contribute to the high-ecliptic latitude north and south toroidal sporadic meteor sources. There remain some differences between the simple model results presented here and observations, but there may be no need to invoke a substantial population of high-inclination parents for the observed high-inclination meteoroid streams with small perihelion distances.     

Activities of Parent Comets and Related Meteor Showers

The activity of a meteor shower is thought to be proportional to the activities through time of the parent comet. Recent applications of the dust trail theory provide us not only with a new method to forecast the occurrences and intensities of shower activities, but it is also offers a new approach to explore the history of past activities of the parent comet by retro-tracking its associated meteor showers. We introduce the result of an effort for relating meteor shower activities to the parent comet activities for which we chose the October Draconids and comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner in this paper.     

Meteor Orbit Determinations with Multistatic Receivers Using the MU Radar

The MU radar of RISH (Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University), which is a MST radar (46.5 MHz, 1 MW peak power), has been successfully applied to meteor studies by using its very high versatility. The system has recently renewed with 25 channel digital receivers which significantly improved the sensitivity and precision of interferometer used in meteor observation. The transmission is now synchronized to GPS signals, and two external receiving sites with a ranging capability has additionally been operated in order to determine the trajectories and speeds of meteoroids.