Dynamical resonant structures in meteoroid stream orbits

Abstract

Herein we use the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR) data set to search for evidence of a resonant swarm in the Taurid meteoroid stream at the 7:2 Jovian resonance. We use a numerical method to estimate the reduction in radar orbit measurement uncertainty required to detect this feature in a data set. This is highly dependent on the proportion of observed particles that are members of the resonant swarm. However, we find that a meteor radar with uncertainties a factor of 10 lower than those of the current CMOR will be sufficient for detection to be possible, if the meteor shower consists of more than 5 per cent resonant particles (considered likely given the results of visual meteor studies). Such an improvement will require accurate removal of deceleration errors from pre-atmospheric meteor velocities, and improvement to the robustness of echo inflection point identification algorithms and interferometric measurements.