Entry mass for bolides of the Canadian network

Abstract

Previously, the mass of meteor bodies was determined according to the so-called photometric formula by integration of the luminosity along the visible segment of the trajectory. On the other hand, the altitude and the meteor aerobraking rate in the atmosphere depend on the mass of the meteor body. In a number of papers, it was noted that the bolide masses estimated by the two indicated methods significantly differ from each other. For example, according to these data related to the bolides of both the European network and the US Prairie network, the photometric mass exceeds by an order of magnitude or more the mass determined by the aerobraking rate. In this study, we estimate the extraatmospheric meteor mass by choosing parameters that characterize the meteor aerobraking along the entire visible segment of the trajectory. The results for bolides of the Canadian network confirm once again the inadequacy of the photometric approach. In processing the observed-data, we widely exploit the conception of the photometric mass of a meteor body