Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T04:48:16.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Determination of Meteor Mass Distribution From Meteor Echoes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

G. Forti
G. Forti*
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Astrophysical ObservatoryCambridge, Massachusetts

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Meteor counts from the observations of the Harvard-Smithsonian Radio Meteor Project at four magnitudes in the range of about +9 to +15 in the visual scale were used to determine the exponent of the mass-distribution law under certain assumptions. Since for these data no range measures were available, and since the pattern of the transmitting/receiving antennas was very broad, the same range and radiant distribution were assumed for all counts within the same half-hour during which individual counts at different magnitudes were obtained. These echo counts, covering in five successive days 24 hr with overlapping periods, yielded for the exponent a value of 1.95±0.0.02, close to other determinations. Individual values, however, presented a considerable scatter, probably reflecting changes in radiant and mass distribution over the year. From the same data, it appeared that the mass exponent changed during the day, yielding generally a higher value for the evening hours.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 13: Evolutionary and Physical Properties of Meteoroids , June 1971 , pp. 9 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © NASA 1971

References

Elford, W. G., and Hawkins, G. S., 1964. Meteor echo rates and the flux of sporadic meteors, Harvard Radio Meteor Project Res. Rept. No. 9.Google Scholar
Hawkins, G. S., and Upton, E. K. L., 1958. The influx rate of meteors in the Earth’s atmosphere, Astrophys. J., 128, 727–735.Google Scholar
Kaiser, T. R., 1961. The determination of the incident flux of radio meteors. II. Sporadic meteors, Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc., 123, 265–271.Google Scholar
Kresákovaá, M., and Kresák, L., 1955. On the activity of telescopic meteors and some related problems, Contrib. Astron. Obs. Skalnaté Pleso, 1, 40–77.Google Scholar
Mcintosh, B. A., and Simek, M., 1969. Mass distribution of meteoroids as detennined by radar observations of underdense meteor trails, Can. J. Phys., 47, 7–22.Google Scholar
öpik, E., 1958. Statistical results from the Arizona expedition for the study of meteors, Contrib. Armagh Obs., No. 26, 1–82.Google Scholar
Šimek, M., and Mcintosh, B. A., 1968. Meteor mass distribution from underdense-trail echoes, in Physics and Dynamics of Meteors, edited by Kresák, L. and Millman, P. M., D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, Holland, 362–372.Google Scholar
Southworth, R. B., Recombination in radar meteors, this volume.Google Scholar
Weiss, A. A., 1957. The distribution of the orbits of sporadic meteors, Australian J. Phys., 10, 77–102.Google Scholar