Abstract
We investigate the morphological variation of classical meteor light curves, under the constant velocity assumption, for a series of idealized atmospheric density profiles. We look specifically at the t rise /t fall ratio, which compares the rise time to maximum brightness against the time to fall from maximum brightness. We demonstrate that for a classical meteoroid undergoing rapid ablation in an isothermal atmosphere that t rise/t fall > 1, indicating that all such light curves are late peaked. For a classical meteoroid ablating in a region over which the density is constant, t rise/t fall≡ 0, and the light curve is necessarily downward concave in the height vs. intensity diagram. If ablation occurs over a region in which the density increases linearly with decreasing height, then t rise/t fall=1/(√5 – 1) ≈ 0.81, indicative of an early peaked, near symmetric light curve.
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Beech, M., Hargrove, M. Classical Meteor Light Curve Morphology. Earth Moon Planet 95, 389–394 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11038-004-7659-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11038-004-7659-9