The Geminid meteor shower during the ECOMA sounding rocket campaign: specular and head echo radar observations

G Stober,M Rapp,R Latteck,C Schult,C Baumann

doi:10.5194/angeo-31-473-2013

Abstract

Abstract. The ECOMA (Existence of Charge state Of meteoric smoke particles in the Middle Atmosphere) sounding rocket campaign was conducted during the Geminid meteor shower in December 2010 in order to explore whether there is a change of the properties of meteoric smoke particles due to the stream. In parallel to the rocket flights, three radars monitored the Geminid activity located at the launch site in Northern Norway and in Northern Germany to gain information about the meteor flux into the atmosphere. The results presented here are based on specular meteor radar observations measuring the radiant position, the velocity and the meteor flux into the atmosphere during the Geminids. Further, the MAARSY (Middle Atmosphere Alomar Radar System) radar was operated to conduct meteor head echo experiments. The interferometric capabilities of MAARSY permit measuring the meteor trajectories within the radar beam and to determine the source radiant and geocentric meteor velocity, as well as to compute the meteor orbit.

Highlights

The ECOMA sounding rocket campaign was conducted dur- would expect that this shower provides a significant source of ing December 2010
To evaluate the effective collecting area equation and its properties, we focused on the Juliusruh meteor radar (MR) to demonstrate how the effective collecting area changes with time
To separate potential Geminid meteor head echoes from the sporadic meteor background, we considered all meteors within 10◦ in right ascension and 5◦ in declination of the Geminid source radiant and a vector velocity between 30–40 km s−1 as Geminid meteoroids

Summary

Introduction

Model DGeevoeslocipemnteifnict1hdth9aeest5e9scap;taogMbrealocedKcimecinsne.tltreeTiyocy,rpv1tierc9ala6oill1caG)ittyaeanMmnodifanotl3iytddi5ptsuikecdomaleclcsDrsGu−atrnr1eegeian(vemeoet.sghsipm.leocaDDiarliptliaeusitrcicdmtnlutuneosdisteskimeiffonoieorncratsstmntagol.aef, between 85–95 km (specular observation). Both radars use an identical software and crossed dipole antennas on transmission and reception. In addition to these standard meteor experiments both radars were calibrated using the delay line method (Latteck et al, 2008). This permits to directly quantify the observed electron line densities in order to estimate the meteoroid size/mass assuming single body meteor ablation. These radars have proven to be a valuable tool to study meteor source radiants (e.g. Hocking et al, 2001; Campbell-Brown and Jones, 2006; Jones et al, 2005; Jones and Jones, 2006) and entry velocity and masses (e.g. Baggaley et al, 1994, 1997; Brown et al, 1998; Hocking, 2000; Baggaley, 2002; Stober et al, 2011)

The radiant activity

Velocity measurement

Meteor count rate and meteor fluxes

Findings

Conclusions