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Title: Sporadic micro-meteoroid source radiant distribution inferred from the Arecibo 430 MHz radar observations
ABSTRACT

This work presents the result of sporadic meteor radiant density distribution using the Arecibo 430 MHz incoherent scatter radar (ISR) located in Puerto Rico for the first time. Although numerous meteor studies have been carried out using the Arecibo ISR, meteoroid radiant density distribution has remained a mystery as the Arecibo radar cannot measure vector velocity. A numerical orbital simulation algorithm using dynamic programming and stochastic gradient descent is designed to solve the sporadic meteoroid radiant density and the corresponding speed distributions of the meteors observed at Arecibo. The data set for the algorithm comprises over 250 000 meteors from Arecibo observations between 2009 and 2017. Five of the six recognized sporadic meteor sources can be identified from our result. There is no clearly identifiable South Apex source. Instead, there is a broad distribution between +/−30° ecliptic latitude, with the peak density located in the North Apex direction. Our results also indicate that the Arecibo radar is not sensitive to meteors travelling straight into or perpendicular to the antenna beam but is most sensitive to meteors with an arrival angle between 30° and 60°. Our analysis indicates that about 75 per cent of meteoroids observed by the Arecibo radar travel in prograde orbits when the impact probability is considered. Most of the retrograde meteoroids travel in inclined low-eccentricity orbits.

 
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Award ID(s):
2152109 1744033
PAR ID:
10375353
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Oxford University Press
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume:
515
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0035-8711
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 2088-2098
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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