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Ripping -11.2 magnitude Fireball with Stereo Radio Reflection (April 21, 2011 : I am exploring the possibility that this fireball might have been an early Lyrid. See map overlay below. Lyrid meteor shower radiant is in the vicinity of the Lyra-Hercules border. Update : April 22, 2011 1750 UT: This was probably a sporadic meteor and not a Lyrid. ) NOTE: If movie above does not play it can also be accessed here: |
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Explanation : In New Mexico, radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft has combined a VHF (very high frequency) forward scatter radio array with an experimental Sandia National Laboratories Sentinel all-sky camera for nightly observations of meteors, fireballs and space dust. Meteors striking the Earth's upper atmosphere ablate and produce visible light and plasma trails due to frictional excitation and ionization of the atmospheric constituents. It was discovered many years ago that these meteoric plasma trails also have the capability of reflecting far distant radio transmitters. The received radio reflections from the meteor can last until the high atmospheric winds dissipate the coherent ionization. Listen to the specimen fireball above in stereo with channel A of the radio array tuned to 61.250 MHz and channel B at 83.250 MHz. Here is another recent dopplering fireball from April 05, 2011. Older archive of meteor captures. For more information on radio meteor observation see: http://www.imo.net/radio Thomas Ashcraft | Mail | To Heliotown and more astronomical observations |
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