Bright Perseid fireball with exceptional beginning height of 170 km observed by different techniques

Abstract

We report multi-instrumental observation of a bright fireball belonging to the Perseid meteor shower, which was recorded simultaneously by 11 all-sky photographic cameras, one high-resolution 300 mm photographic camera, two digital all-sky cameras, one wide-field digital camera, and two analog image-intensified video cameras on 12 August in 2012 at 22:29:46 UT. An exceptional beginning height of 170 km makes this fireball the highest Perseid ever observed and the highest meteor ever observed with precise atmospheric trajectory and heliocentric orbit not belonging to the Leonid shower. Moreover, one spectral video camera recorded the spectrum of the fireball. The spectrum shows only atmospheric emissions of O, N, and N 2 above 130 km. Below 110 km, the spectrum is not markedly different from other Perseid fireballs. The spectrum of the persistent train was also recorded, and a double-station observation of the persistent train provided its vertical and horizontal motion.

September epsilon Perseids observed by the Czech Fireball Network

“…We compared these results with other meteor showers (Fig. 4) and found Orionids and Perseids to be the most similar with almost the same spread of observed dynamic pressures (Shrbený 2009;Spurný & Shrbený 2008;Spurný et al 2014), though SPE seem to be slightly stronger and approaching the strength of Taurids. Two types of radiometric light curves were observed among the 2013 outburst fireballs and also SPE fireballs in the years 2015-2017.…”

“…We found Perseids to be the most similar (PE = −5.27 ± 0.27). Meteoroids of both these showers have almost the same mean value and the same spread of PE coefficients over type II and IIIA (Spurný 1995;Shrbený 2009;Spurný et al 2014). Orionids are also very similar but contain a large number of IIIB meteoroids, which are interpreted as the softest cometary material, and often exhibit distinct terminal flares (Spurný & Shrbený 2008;Shrbený 2009).…”

“…Orionids are also very similar but contain a large number of IIIB meteoroids, which are interpreted as the softest cometary material, and often exhibit distinct terminal flares (Spurný & Shrbený 2008;Shrbený 2009). According to PE criterion, the SPE meteoroids are composed Shrbený & Spurný (2009, 2012, Spurný et al (2014Spurný et al ( , 2017.…”

“…Dispersion of PE coefficients for some meteor showers. The data were collected fromSpurný (1995),Borovička et al (2007),Spurný & Shrbený (2008),Shrbený (2009),Shrbený & Spurný (2009, 2012,Spurný et al (2014Spurný et al ( , 2017.…”

Catalogue of representative meteor spectra

“…5. Because of the high maximum brightness of −9.2 mag, the first order spectrum was oversaturated in video frames during the brightness maximum, therefore we did not include this spectrum in the catalogue (for more details about this exceptional meteor see Spurný et al 2014). Moreover, the approach for the classification of spectra that we use below was only developed for small meteroids in the 1−10 mm size range.…”