Constraining the grain mass distribution of small meteoroids using high resolution data

Abstract

The ablation of two meteors are simulated using a modified thermal disruption model, with data acquired from the Canadian Automated Meteor Observatory (CAMO). The purpose is to determine whether the high-resolution wake provides enough data to constrain the grain mass distribution of small meteoroids (1×10−7 – 1×10−4 kg). Gaussian and constant grain mass distributions are varied as free parameters. The entire solution space of the free model parameters is searched for two events to find simulated light curves that provide good fits to the observations. The resulting parameters are used to model the wake of the same event, which are then compared to CAMOs narrow-field observed wake. The model has shown that the wake is capable of ruling out certain grain mass distributions. In the case of event 20150915_084106, the wake has successfully ruled out both the Gaussian and constant distribution of grain masses.