Evidence for transverse spread in Leonid meteors

LeBlanc, Andrew Glenn; Murray, Ian S.; Hawkes, R. L.; Worden, Pete; Campbell, Margaret D.; Brown, Peter; Jenniskens, Peter; Correll, Robert; Montague, T.; Babcock, D.

doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03347.x

Cited by 32 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Spurný et al (2000) described jet-like structures detectable several kilometers sideways from the brightest parts of meteor head, and moving with a velocity over 100 km s −1 for several bright Leonids observed at very high altitudes (above 130 km and up to 200 km). Lower in the atmosphere and also for Leonids, similar unusual structures have been reported by Taylor et al (2000) and LeBlanc et al (2000). The jet-like structures perpendicular to the flight path with lengths up to 2 km were observed for several Leonids.…”

Section: Meteor Motion Radiation and Ionization Pecularitiessupporting

confidence: 84%

Is electric charge separation the main process for kinetic energy transformation into the meteor phenomenon?

Spurný¹,

Ceplecha²

2008

A&A

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After 3 years of systematic monitoring of fireballs by autonomous fireball observatories (AFO), millisecond flares (spikes) were recognized for the frequent and regular behavior of meteor light curves recorded with high time resolution. Also, other peculiarities in meteor motion, radiation, and ionization point to some more powerful internal processes in meteoroid interaction with the atmosphere than hypersonic aerodynamics can offer. Fragmentation of meteoroids starts at much higher altitudes than at those corresponding to aerodynamic loading. The fragility of meteoroids cannot explain this behavior, beeing also observed with the strongest bolide types (I and II). We propose triboelectricity as induced in meteoroids during their atmospheric penetration as the main process to adequately explain the meteor phenomenon, with hypersonic aerodynamics processes being only of secondary importance. Triboelectric charging may be the most important energy transfer inside a meteoroid causing internal charge differences inside different conductivity domains until discharge fragments the body. Such a process then may repeat over and over in the main body, as well as in individual fragments.

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Section: Meteor Motion Radiation and Ionization Pecularitiessupporting

confidence: 84%

Is electric charge separation the main process for kinetic energy transformation into the meteor phenomenon?

Spurný¹,

Ceplecha²

2008

A&A

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“…We find that the typical Leonid meteor with a beginning height of 116 km and an end height of 98 km can be readily described as a dustball meteoroid made of stone‐like grains. Certainly a minority of Leonids do have beginning and end heights that are not consistent with a stone‐like composition (LeBlanc et al 2000; Spurny et al 2000b), but in order to understand these objects we need more detailed data on meteoroid composition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leonid meteor light-curve synthesis

Beech

Murray

2003

Monthly Notices RAS

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An analytic model of dustball meteoroid ablation is developed and used to generate synthesized Leonid meteor light curves. The model light curves are compared against observational data collected during the 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 Leonid outbursts. A power‐law distribution of the form m−α is assumed for the fundamental grain mass distribution, and we find that α= 1.6 ± 0.1 provides a good description to the typical Leonid meteor light‐curve morphology, although the range 1.0 ≤α≤ 2.0 is required to explain the entire gamut of observed light curves. We find an interesting discordance between the light‐curve morphologies derived for the 1998 and 1999 Leonid returns; the former light curves being best described by α∼ 1.6, the latter having α∼ 1.0 and being noticeably more rotund in shape. We suggest that the 1999 Leonid meteoroids were relatively rich in larger‐mass fundamental grains. Since, however, both the 1998 and 1999 returns were composed of material ejected from comet 55P/Tempel‐Tuttle in 1899, it is suggested that some form of orbital ‘sifting’, based upon meteoroid structure, has occurred. In addition, we find evidence for the existence of dustball meteoroids that are much richer in larger‐mass grains than a simple power‐law model would predict. Such dustballs may be clustered assemblages produced by accretion in the near‐cometary nucleus environment. We find no clear correlation between Leonid meteor light‐curve morphology and streamlet age, indicating that fragmentation, ‘weathering’ and thermal cycling effects are apparently not important for modifying Leonid meteoroid structure on time‐scales of the order of at least several hundreds of years.

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“…The ejected material was observed at an average distance of 450 m from the main body. Another case of transverse spread in a Leonid meteor was described in the paper of LeBlanc et al (2000). Light production was observed in the region of about 600 m perpendicular to the flight direction of the meteor.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

The beginning heights and light curves of high-altitude meteors

Koten

Spurný

Borovička

et al. 2006

Meteoritics &Amp; Planetary Science

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The beginning heights and light curves of high-altitude meteorsConversely, meteors with beginning heights above 160 km are very rare even among Leonids. From the meteor light curves, we are able to distinguish two different processes that govern radiation of the meteors at different altitudes. Light curves vary greatly above 130 km and exhibit sudden changes in meteor brightness. Sputtering from the meteoroid surface is the dominating process during this phase of the meteor luminous trajectory. Around 130 km, the process switches to ablation and the light curves become similar to the light curves of standard meteors. The sputtering model was successfully applied to explain the difference in the beginning heights of high-altitude Leonid and Perseid meteors. We show also that this process in connection with high altitude fragmentation could explain the anomalously high beginning heights of several relatively faint meteors.

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Evidence for transverse spread in Leonid meteors

Cited by 32 publications

References 16 publications

Is electric charge separation the main process for kinetic energy transformation into the meteor phenomenon?

Is electric charge separation the main process for kinetic energy transformation into the meteor phenomenon?

Leonid meteor light-curve synthesis

The beginning heights and light curves of high-altitude meteors

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