Sodium resonance lidar observations during 2001 Leonid meteor shower over Wuhan

Abstract

Here is the first report on the observation of meteor ablation trails with lidar in China. Four long-lived Na ablation trails were observed during the 18/19 Nov. 2001 Leonid meteor shower with a sodium resonance lidar over Wuhan. The mean altitude of the 4 trails is 97.95 km, consistent with Leonid high entry velocity (∼72 km/s). The peak density averages about 3380±3633 cm−3, and the abundance is (2.33 ±1.49) ×108 cm−2, both of which are higher than those previously observed for sporadic meteor trails. The RMS width is 359 m and the meteor’s age is 81 min, indicating that they are long duration meteor trails. These observation results are quite different from those of sporadic meteor trails, but comparable to the 1998 and 1999 Leonid report. Five night observations from 17 Nov. to 23 Nov. suggest that the 2001 Leonid meteor shower does not have a significant impact on the abundance of the background Na layer.