Abstract
The pulse-integrated signal to noise ratio as a function of time known as radar meteor light curve (analogous to optical light curve), is an indicative of ablation processes during meteoroid flight in the atmosphere. In this study, we present and discuss few examples of light curves of long duration specular overdense meteor echoes detected with 53 MHz Gadanki (\(13.5^{\circ}N\), \(79.2^{\circ}E\)) MST radar. These echoes are of several seconds duration, where pulsation in amplitude is about ten cycles within few seconds. This means the fluctuations in amplitude are much slower than typical Fresnel oscillations of underdense as well as the head echo fluctuations. These light curves reveal several features unreported previously in the radar meteor returns 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. Some other meteor events such as meteoroids undergoing quasi-continuous disintegration are also discussed.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thankful to the Director and Staff of NARL, Gadanki for their support in conducting experiment. The authors acknowledge DST-SERB, India for financial assistant through research project. One of the authors, KCR thankful to the UGC, India for UGC-BSR Research Start-Up Grant. The kind help of W.G. Elford in developing the manuscript is appreciated.
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Chenna Reddy, K., Yellaiah, G. Fragmentation of specular overdense meteor trail echoes observed with Gadanki MST radar. Astrophys Space Sci 361, 83 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-016-2670-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-016-2670-y