Authors: K Chenna Reddy G Yellaiah
Publish Date: 2016/01/27
Volume: 361, Issue: 2, Pages: 83-
Abstract
The pulseintegrated 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 135circN 792circE 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 submillimetersized 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 quasicontinuous disintegration are also discussedThe authors thankful to the Director and Staff of NARL Gadanki for their support in conducting experiment The authors acknowledge DSTSERB India for financial assistant through research project One of the authors KCR thankful to the UGC India for UGCBSR Research StartUp Grant The kind help of WG Elford in developing the manuscript is appreciated
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