Searching for Light Curve Evidence of Meteoroid Structure and Fragmentation

We used light curve analysis to search for evidence of the dustball meteoroid model. Leonid, Taurid, Alpha Monocerotid and sporadic meteors from November 2003 were observed and analyzed using uniform methodology. Meteors from these four sources were examined for evidence of fragmentation by examinin...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Earth, moon, and planets moon, and planets, 2004-12, Vol.95 (1-4), p.289-295
Main Authors: Faloon, A J, Thaler, J D, Hawkes, R L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ablation
Comets
Earth
Fragmentation
Leonid meteoroids
Light
Light curve
Mathematical models
Meteoroids
Meteors
Meteors & meteorites
Moon
Parameters
Searching
Showers
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We used light curve analysis to search for evidence of the dustball meteoroid model. Leonid, Taurid, Alpha Monocerotid and sporadic meteors from November 2003 were observed and analyzed using uniform methodology. Meteors from these four sources were examined for evidence of fragmentation by examining light curve shape and searching for light curve irregularities. Differences in meteoroid structure should be reflected by differences in meteor light curves. The resulting meteor light curve F-parameter values showed no statistically significant differences between the meteors from the various cometary showers or the sporadic meteors. The F-parameter values also suggest that the meteoroids from these sources do not follow a single body ablation model, which suggests that all four sources produce meteoroids with a dustball structure.
ISSN:0167-9295
1573-0794
DOI:10.1007/s11038-005-9020-3