Classical Meteor Light Curve Morphology

Abstract

We investigate the morphological variation of classical meteor light curves, under the constant velocity assumption, for a series of idealized atmospheric density profiles. We look specifically at the t rise/t fall ratio, which compares the rise time to maximum brightness against the time to fall from maximum brightness. We demonstrate that for a classical meteoroid undergoing rapid ablation in an isothermal atmosphere that t rise/t fall > 1, indicating that all such light curves are late peaked. For a classical meteoroid ablating in a region over which the density is constant, t rise/t fall ≡ 0, and the light curve is necessarily downward concave in the height vs. intensity diagram. If ablation occurs over a region in which the density increases linearly with decreasing height, then t rise/t fall = 1/(✓5 - 1) ≈ 0.81, indicative of an early peaked, near symmetric light curve.