The azimuth distribution of oblique reflections from meteor trails and its relation to meteor radiant distributions

Abstract

Azimuth distributions of the meteor reflections to be expected at various times of day on a 1740 km north-south transmission path at v.h.f. are calculated from three initial radiant distributions of sporadic meteors. These distributions were: 1. (1) a distribution of meteors, magnitude about 7, obtained by workers at Jodrell Bank; 2. (2) a uniform heliocentric distribution in the plane of the ecliptic; 3. (3) a heliocentric distribution uniform over the celestial sphere. It was found that the third of these gave the best fit to the azimuth results obtained by Meadows (1958) on such a path at a frequency of 37 Mc/s; the meteors observed extended downwards in intensity to magnitude 10. Calculations on the forward-scattering of radio waves by meteors should therefore be based on this distribution. Observational results are also presented for a very similar path with a frequency of about 70 Mc/s; they resemble those obtained at 37 Mc/s, although are not identical to them. The cause of the differences is unknown, but they may be due to the transmitter polar diagram not being identical at the two frequencies.