Abstract Details
| Name: Dr. K. CHENNA REDDY Affiliation: Dept. of Astronomy, Osmania University, Hyderabad Conference ID: ASI2015_594 Title : Meteoroid fragmentation as observed from the Gadanki MST radar Authors and Co-Authors : G Yellaiah Abstract Type : Poster Abstract Category : Sun and the Solar System Abstract : The phenomenon of meteoroid fragmentation in the Earth's atmosphere is of considerable importance in understanding the dynamics of the upper atmosphere. The radar meteor light curve is defined as the pulse-integrated Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) as a function of time, which is analogous to the light curve of optical meteors, which is an indicative of ablation processes during meteoroid flights in the atmosphere. Meteor light curves also have been used to understand the physical structure and chemical composition of meteoroid. In this study, we present and discuss few examples of pulsating meteor light curves from the observations made with the 53 MHz MST radar system. These light curves reveal many previously unreported features in the radar meteor return that are consistent with meteoroid fragmentation. Some of them provide the strong observational evidence of a sub-millimeter-sized meteoroid breaking apart into two distinct fragments. The pulsations in light curves are interpreted as being due to interference from two distinct scattering centers and the detected pulsation rates are utilized to calculate the differential velocity of the fragments. The results are in consistent with interference from two fragments of unequal cross-sectional area over mass ratio, separating from each other due to different deceleration along the trajectory of their parent meteoroid. Some other meteor events are examples of a meteoroid undergoing quasi-continuous disintegration. |