Orbit determination based on meteor observations using numerical integration of equations of motion

Abstract

Orbit determination based on meteor observations using numerical integration of equations of motion Dmitriev, Vasily Dmitriev , V , Lupovka , V & Gritsevich , M 2015 , ' Orbit determination based on meteor observations using numerical integration of equations of motion ' , Planetary and Space Science , vol. 117 , AbstractRecently, there has been a worldwide proliferation of instruments and networks dedicated to observing meteors, including international airborne campaigns (Vaubaillon, J. et al., 2015) and possible future space-based monitoring systems (Bouquet A., et al., 2014). There has been a corresponding rapid rise in high quality data accumulating annually. In this paper, we present a method embodied in a software program, which can effectively and accurately process these data in an automated mode and discover the pre-impact orbit and possibly the origin or parent body of a meteoroid or asteroid. The required input parameters are the topocentric pre-atmospheric velocity vector and the coordinates of the atmospheric entry point of the meteoroid, i.e. the beginning point of visual path of a meteor, in the an Earth centered-Earth fixed coordinate system, the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). Our method is based on strict coordinate transformation from the ITRF to an inertial reference frame and on numerical integration of the equations of motion for a perturbed two-body problem. Basic accelerations perturbing a meteoroid's orbit and their influence on the orbital elements are also studied and demonstrated. Our method is then compared with several published studies that utilized variations of a traditional analytical technique, the zenith attraction method, which corrects for the direction of the meteor's trajectory and its apparent velocity due to Earth's gravity. We then demonstrate the proposed technique on new observational data obtained from the Finnish Fireball Network (FFN) as well as on simulated data. In addition, we propose a method of analysis of error propagation, based on general rule of covariance transformation.

Verification of the Flow Regimes Based on High-fidelity Observations of Bright Meteors

“…Meteoroids are solid objects which originate from comets, asteroids and other solar system bodies. Their orbits are perturbed by the gravitational influences of planets, or due to collisions (Jenniskens 1998;Trigo-Rodríguez et al 2005a;Trigo-Rodríguez et al 2005b;Dmitriev et al 2015). Meteoroids impact the Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic entry velocities, ranging between 11 -73 km/s, corresponding to the Mach number (Ma), which represents the ratio of the meteoroid velocity to the local speed of sound at the meteoroid surrounding flow conditions, between 35 and 270 (e.g., Ceplecha et al, 1998;Jenniskens 1998;Baggaley 2002;Gritsevich 2009).…”

Park Forest (L5) and the asteroidal source of shocked L chondrites

“…However, in terms of numbers of recovered meteorites, a more important factor is the constant progress in the installation of dedicated fireball camera networks by academics and amateurs. Examples of such efforts are the European Fireball Network (e.g., Oberst et al 1998), the Spanish Fireball Network (e.g., Trigo-Rodr ıguez et al 2006), the Polish Fireball Network (e.g., _ Zoła̧dek et al 2007), the Desert Fireball Network in the Nullarbor region of Australia (e.g., Bland et al 2009), the CAMS network in California (e.g., Jenniskens et al 2014), the Croatian Fireball Network (Borovi cka et al 2015), the French Fireball Network (Colas et al 2015), and the Finnish Fireball Network (e.g., Dmitriev et al 2015).…”

Annama H chondrite—Mineralogy, physical properties, cosmic ray exposure, and parent body history

“…The fireball observations and heliocentric orbit reconstruction are detailed in Dmitriev et al. () and Trigo‐Rodríguez et al. ().…”

“…Annama collided with the Earth on an Apollo‐type orbit (Dmitriev et al. ; Trigo‐Rodríguez et al. ) and at the time of its fall, it was the 23rd meteorite and 10th H chondrite with known heliocentric orbit (http://www.meteoriteorbits.info/, retrieved November 10, 2016).…”

“…The strewn field was computed from the observations by the Finnish Fireball Network and a calibrated video (taken by Alexandr Nesterov in Snezhnogorsk, Russia); details are provided in Gritsevich et al (2014b). The fireball observations and heliocentric orbit reconstruction are detailed in Dmitriev et al (2015) and Trigo-Rodr ıguez et al (2015). The fireball data interpretation was done using the fb_entry program (Lyytinen and Gritsevich 2013) taking into account the atmospheric conditions present during the meteorite fall (Lyytinen and Gritsevich 2016).…”