Effective mass function of radio meteoroids as a modulating factor in determining atmospheric scale height
ABSTRACT A long-standing problem in meteor science has been the persistent presence of bias in the measured value of atmospheric scale heights obtained from radio meteor echoes. A common practice of fitting a linear function for bias correction follows the assumption that the systematic bias is devo...
Published in: | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
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Oxford University Press (OUP)
2024
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croxfordunivpr:10.1093/mnras/stae981 2024-06-23T07:56:45+00:00 Effective mass function of radio meteoroids as a modulating factor in determining atmospheric scale height Sarkar, Emranul Ulich, Thomas Lester, Mark 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae981 https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/mnras/stae981/57191590/stae981.pdf https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-pdf/530/2/1921/58030500/stae981.pdf en eng Oxford University Press (OUP) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society volume 530, issue 2, page 1921-1934 ISSN 0035-8711 1365-2966 journal-article 2024 croxfordunivpr https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae981 2024-06-04T06:10:21Z ABSTRACT A long-standing problem in meteor science has been the persistent presence of bias in the measured value of atmospheric scale heights obtained from radio meteor echoes. A common practice of fitting a linear function for bias correction follows the assumption that the systematic bias is devoid of seasonal asymmetry. This would be true if the mass and the velocity distribution of meteoroids remain invariant, both spatially and temporally. But so far no such convincing evidence has been published. On the contrary, fundamental arguments suggest that a universal mass function of radio meteoroids is counterintuitive. This parameter cannot remain invariant due to the intrinsic variability in the meteor response function resulting from the Earth’s motion on the plane of ecliptic. In this paper, we show that an inverse relation exists between the width of meteor height distribution, expressed in unit of atmospheric scale height, and the exponent of the mass function. The overall mean of this exponent for the Sodankylä radar is $1.91 \pm 0.02$, modulated by a seasonal variation from the mean of the order of $\sim \pm 0.1$. The stated inverse relation is applied to correct for the effect of mass distribution on the height distribution. Allowing for variable mass correction effectively removes the non-linear bias in the measured scale heights in the meteor ionization region. Article in Journal/Newspaper Sodankylä Oxford University Press Sodankylä ENVELOPE(26.600,26.600,67.417,67.417) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 530 2 1921 1934 |
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Open Polar |
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Oxford University Press |
op_collection_id |
croxfordunivpr |
language |
English |
description |
ABSTRACT A long-standing problem in meteor science has been the persistent presence of bias in the measured value of atmospheric scale heights obtained from radio meteor echoes. A common practice of fitting a linear function for bias correction follows the assumption that the systematic bias is devoid of seasonal asymmetry. This would be true if the mass and the velocity distribution of meteoroids remain invariant, both spatially and temporally. But so far no such convincing evidence has been published. On the contrary, fundamental arguments suggest that a universal mass function of radio meteoroids is counterintuitive. This parameter cannot remain invariant due to the intrinsic variability in the meteor response function resulting from the Earth’s motion on the plane of ecliptic. In this paper, we show that an inverse relation exists between the width of meteor height distribution, expressed in unit of atmospheric scale height, and the exponent of the mass function. The overall mean of this exponent for the Sodankylä radar is $1.91 \pm 0.02$, modulated by a seasonal variation from the mean of the order of $\sim \pm 0.1$. The stated inverse relation is applied to correct for the effect of mass distribution on the height distribution. Allowing for variable mass correction effectively removes the non-linear bias in the measured scale heights in the meteor ionization region. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sarkar, Emranul Ulich, Thomas Lester, Mark |
spellingShingle |
Sarkar, Emranul Ulich, Thomas Lester, Mark Effective mass function of radio meteoroids as a modulating factor in determining atmospheric scale height |
author_facet |
Sarkar, Emranul Ulich, Thomas Lester, Mark |
author_sort |
Sarkar, Emranul |
title |
Effective mass function of radio meteoroids as a modulating factor in determining atmospheric scale height |
title_short |
Effective mass function of radio meteoroids as a modulating factor in determining atmospheric scale height |
title_full |
Effective mass function of radio meteoroids as a modulating factor in determining atmospheric scale height |
title_fullStr |
Effective mass function of radio meteoroids as a modulating factor in determining atmospheric scale height |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effective mass function of radio meteoroids as a modulating factor in determining atmospheric scale height |
title_sort |
effective mass function of radio meteoroids as a modulating factor in determining atmospheric scale height |
publisher |
Oxford University Press (OUP) |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae981 https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/mnras/stae981/57191590/stae981.pdf https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-pdf/530/2/1921/58030500/stae981.pdf |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(26.600,26.600,67.417,67.417) |
geographic |
Sodankylä |
geographic_facet |
Sodankylä |
genre |
Sodankylä |
genre_facet |
Sodankylä |
op_source |
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society volume 530, issue 2, page 1921-1934 ISSN 0035-8711 1365-2966 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae981 |
container_title |
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
container_volume |
530 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
1921 |
op_container_end_page |
1934 |
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1802650080318062592 |