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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • meteors
  • radars

Index Terms

  • Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Meteors
  • Radio Science: Remote sensing
  • Ionosphere: Meteor-trail physics
  • Radio Science: Ionospheric physics

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 36, L21106, 4 PP., 2009
doi:10.1029/2009GL040558

Low-altitude meteor trail echoes

Akshay Malhotra

Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

John D. Mathews

Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

We present here the first observations of a new type of meteor echo. These Low-Altitude Trail Echoes (LATE), observed almost exclusively below 90 km altitude using the Jicamarca Research Observatory 50 MHz radar, exhibit very different features and characteristics from the other well studied and reported meteor trails - the specular meteor trails and the Range Spread Trail Echoes. Some of these features include strong altitude dependence, low aspect sensitivity and no gap between the head echo and the trail. Perhaps most importantly, almost 80% of the head echoes below 85 km altitude in our data set exhibit LATE trails. The study of these echoes provides valuable insights into the role of diffusion and plasma instabilities in the formation and evolution of meteor trails.

Received 13 August 2009; accepted 12 October 2009; published 12 November 2009.

Citation: Malhotra, A., and J. D. Mathews (2009), Low-altitude meteor trail echoes, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L21106, doi:10.1029/2009GL040558.

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