用武汉流星雷达观测象限仪座流星雨期间的流星速度

利用武汉流星雷达,首次成功地观测了象限仪座流星雨及流星雨期间的流星速度,讨论了利用单站全天空流星雷达观测流星雨的相关问题.从观测结果可以发现此次象限仪座流星雨发生在2004年1月4日的0000-0800LT,其中流星峰值出现在0400LT,而且通过流星雷达观测到的流星雨期间的流星回波平面推测得到的流星雨辐射点也与该流星雨的理论辐射点位置对应非常好.利用流星回波振幅的Fresnel振荡方法计算了此次流星雨期间观测到的流星的速度,分析了该流星速度的分布,这次流星雨期间观测到的流星速度主要集中在10-30 km/s,可以看出这种速度分布是由流星雨进入地球大气的初始速度和流星在大气中的减速过程共同决定的.最后研究了流星速度随高度的变化,并且由此讨论了地球大气对于流星体的减速作用.      

廊坊中频雷达流星观测及初步结果

中频雷达用来开展夜间100km高度以上的流星观测,获得流星随时间、高度、方位的分布情况及流星体速度、流星辐射点、流星余迹径向速度等参数,其探测数据可用于流星天文学、中层大气动力学等领域的研究.利用2017年11月16日12:00UT-22:00UT期间廊坊观测站（39.4°N,116.7°E）的中频雷达数据,首次开展了中国中纬度地区夜间流星观测实验,共检测到94个流星回波信号,集中分布在97～115km高度范围内,平均高度为106.5km,计算得到了流星回波的双极扩散系数、方位分布等相关参数,并与国外中频雷达流星探测结果进行了初步比较.      

火星探测微流星体环境模型及风险预测

微流星体是自然存在的微型天体.在太阳系空间范围内,微流星体的主要起源为彗星及小行星.在地球至火星的空间范围内,微流星体的飞行速度范围为24.13~42.2km·-1.高速飞行的微流星体一旦撞击火星探测器,将有可能对探测器造成毁灭性的损害.本文基于太阳神探测器的观测结果及彗星轨道观测统计结果,针对火星探测,分别建立了地火转移段及环火飞行段的微流星体环境模型,并基于有限元离散方法建立了火星探测任务的微流星体碰撞风险预测方法.设计了一个虚拟火星探测器,分别对其在地火转移段及环火飞行段的微流星体撞击通量进行了分析.结果显示,在探测器有效任务期内,探测器正面受微流星撞击次数约为背面的10倍.根据本文模型计算结果,将探测器顶板铝合金蒙皮的厚度增加至0.7mm后,在整个任务周期内可将探测器正面受微流星体撞击出现击穿损伤的风险降低为每平米7次.      

微流星消融对中高层区域金属层的影响

采用连续的微流星体消融模型,对小微粒的流星颗粒(半径＜100μm)消融过程进行分析,并估计对中高层区域(80～110 km)金属层的影响．无线电流星雷达与激光雷达的探测结果表明,半径在100μm以上的流星颗粒的消融物并不是金属层主要的源．本文从流星颗粒的动量方程和能量方程出发,计算不同半径下的流星微粒在不同的注入速度下的消融剖面,并分析了流星消融截止高度的变化趋势．结合长期的激光雷达观测,计算表明,10～4μ半径的流星微粒是普通金属层的主要影响因素．     

陪你去看流星雨

茫茫黑夜中，一闪而过。流星，又常称为火流星，真可谓“来无影，去无踪”。原来，在浩瀚的太阳系中，有无数的尘埃和固体碎块，纷纷沿着椭圆形轨道绕太阳转动，它们被称做流星体。大多数流星体都很小。当它们偶然地闯入地球大气层时，由于速度达到每秒十几千米甚至七八十千米，和大气发生剧烈的摩擦，温度升高到几千甚至上万摄氏度，于是燃烧发光，这时我们就看到，天空中出现了一颗流星。小的流星体在地面上空好几千米的地方就燃烧完了，而一些大的流星体却可以把一大片天空照得通亮，这叫大流星。最后没有烧尽的流星体落到地面上，成为陨…     

陨石、流星体与小行星及彗星的演化关系

小行星、彗星和流星体(meteoroid)都是绕太阳公转的小天体,它们只是在轨道特性和物理-化学性质方面有所不同,流星体泛指在行星际空间运行的、质量从10~(-16)克微流星体或微尘到10~8克的所有小天体,当它们闯入地球大气时与大气剧烈碰撞而产生发光的流星(meteor)现象,落到地面的流星体残余则称为陨石或陨星(meteorite)。     

流星突发通信信道日变化预测模型

流星突发通信不同于传统的通信, 其是低速率通信, 具有突发、不连续、不定时的特性. 因此, 流星余迹通信的复杂性要求有必要对其通信信道进行建模. 在流星通信链路中, 流星的辐射分布、可用流星率和占空比是影响流星通信信道性能的重要参数. 流星辐射分布在不同季节不同时间都各不相同, 因此准确预测流星通信链路在不同时间的流星辐射分布, 从而改变大圆路径上天线的指向, 对提高通信速率显得非常重要. 同时, 准确预测流星突发通信链路上的可用流星率和占空比, 有助于准确预测并建立流星突发信道模型. 本文分析研究了偶发流星辐射分布建模的发展, 建立了偶发流星日心空间和地心空间的几何关系, 得到了流星突发通信信道参数预测模型. 并将预测模型应用于流星通信链路, 预测结果与通信链路观测结果比较一致, 为流星通信系统的建立提供了技术支持.      

全天空流星雷达相位差监测分析方法研究

介绍了一种直接利用流星观测数据, 根据流星的时空分布特性和天线的空间布阵关系建立数学模型, 对全天空流星雷达各天线通道的相位差进行监测分析和估算的新方法. 通过分析全天空流星雷达的流星观测数据, 获得了流星时空分布特性, 天线阵相位差变化对流星空间分布的影响, 特别是流星高度分布的标准差特性与各天线相位差的关系. 在此基础上, 模拟研究了利用流星高度分布的标准差来估算天线相位差的偏差, 并应用于中国三亚地区全天空流星雷达进行相位差监测分析和校正. 结果表明, 新方法无需任何附加硬件, 通过日常观测数据就能对某一通道的相位差变化或多个通道的相位差变化进行估算和分析,相位差监测精度优于2°. 对这些相位差变化进行校正, 可有效提高全天空流星雷达对流星的定位测量精度.      

武汉上空偶发E层与流星雨的联系

利用全天空流星雷达和数字测高仪联合观测数据,初步分析了武汉(30°32′N,114°22′E)上空2002年3次大的流星雨(英仙座、狮子座、双子座)及2003年象限座流星雨爆发期间Es的出现率变化趋势及其与流星观测量的关系.结果表明,在流星雨爆发时,雷达观测到的流星数目会显著增加;流星雨峰值过后,Es出现率也会增大.流星数和Es出现率间的平均互相关函数有两个峰值,第一个峰值平均出现在流星雨爆发后的第2天前后,第二个峰值平均出现在流星雨后第6天前后.我们认为,第一个峰值对应于流星雨期间的大量流星雨电离产生的Es,第二个峰值对应于流星雨后沉积的金属离子在风剪切作用下形成的Es.     

流星参数的数值分析和流星高度分布模型

流星余迹能够被后向散射雷达观测到, 利用观测结果, 可以分析和研究流星的空间分布和时间变化规律. 同时, 利用流星空间分布还可以进行空间碎片的研究. 基于标准理论, 对影响雷达回波功率的主要因素, 例如如双极扩散、余迹的初始半径、流星的有限速度, 以及雷达的脉冲重复频率在不同频率和速度下进行了数值分析和计算, 得到的流星衰减时间及双极扩散系数的观测结果与理论结果一致. 通过对昆明流星雷 达观测到的571632个流星进行统计分析, 得到了流星高度分布统计模型, 并利用该模型的分析结果与不同月份流星的观测数据进行对比, 结果比较一致.      

Antarctic meteor observations using the Davis MST and meteor radars

This paper presents the meteor observations obtained using two radars installed at Davis (68.6°S, 78.0°E), Antarctica. The Davis MST radar was installed primarily for observation of polar mesosphere summer echoes, with additional transmit and receive antennas installed to allow all-sky interferometric meteor radar observations. The Davis meteor radar performs dedicated all-sky interferometric meteor radar observations. The annual count rate variation for both radars peaks in mid-summer and minimizes in early Spring. The height distribution shows significant annual variation, with minimum (maximum) peak heights and maximum (minimum) height widths in early Spring (mid-summer). Although the meteor radar count rate and height distribution variations are consistent with a similar frequency meteor radar operating at Andenes (69.3°N), the peak heights show a much larger variation than at Andenes, while the count rate maximum-to-minimum ratios show a much smaller variation. Investigation of the effects of the temporal sampling parameters suggests that these differences are consistent with the different temporal sampling strategies used by the Davis and Andenes meteor radars. The new radiant mapping procedure of [Jones, J., Jones, W., Meteor radiant activity mapping using single-station radar observations, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 367(3), 1050–1056, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10025.x, 2006] is investigated. The technique is used to detect the Southern delta-Aquarid meteor shower, and a previously unknown weak shower. Meteoroid speeds obtained using the Fresnel transform are presented. The diurnal, annual, and height variation of meteoroid speeds are presented, with the results found to be consistent with those obtained using specular meteor radars. Meteoroid speed estimates for echoes identified as Southern delta-Aquarid and Sextantid meteor candidates show good agreement with the theoretical pre-atmospheric speeds of these showers (41 km s⁻¹ and 32 km s⁻¹, respectively). The meteoroid speeds estimated for these showers show decreasing speed with decreasing height, consistent with the effects of meteoroid deceleration. Finally, we illustrate how the new radiant mapping and meteoroid speed techniques can be combined for unambiguous meteor shower detection, and use these techniques to detect a previously unknown weak shower.     

Plasma and electromagnetic wave simulations of meteors

Every day billions of meteoroids impact and disintegrate in the Earth’s atmosphere. Current estimates for this global meteor flux vary from 2000 to 200,000 tons per year, and estimates for the average velocity range between 10 km/s and 70 km/s. The basic properties of this global meteor flux, such as the average mass, velocity, and chemical composition remain poorly constrained. We believe much of the mystery surrounding the basic parameters of the interplanetary meteor flux exists for the following reason, the unknown sampling characteristics of different radar meteor observation techniques, which are used to derive or constrain most models. We believe this arises due to poorly understood radio scattering characteristics of the meteor plasma, especially in light of recent work showing that plasma turbulence and instability greatly influences meteor trail properties at every stage of evolution. We present our results on meteor plasmas simulations of head echoes using particle in cell (PIC) ions, which show that electric fields strongly influence early stage meteor plasma evolution, by accelerating ions away from the meteoroid body. We also present the results of finite difference time domain electromagnetic simulations (FDTD), which can calculate the radar cross section of the simulated meteor plasmas. These simulations have shown that the radar cross section depends in a complex manner on a number of parameters. These include the angle between radar and meteor entry, a large dependence on radar frequency, which shows that for a given meteor plasma size and density, the reflectivity as a function of probing radar frequency varies, but typically peaks below 100 MHz.     

Creating an artificial Geminid meteor shower: Correlation between ejecta velocity and observability

One of the interesting arguments for a space impact mission to asteroid 3200 Phaethon is to create an artificial Geminid meteor shower. In this work we investigate the artificial shower’s dates of observability and dependence on ejecta velocity using dust trail theory. We find that when the dust ejecta velocities are 200 m/s the artificial meteor showers start to be visible in 2204 and continue for about 30 years. If the dust ejecta velocity is 20 m/s they only last 10 years from 2215 to 2225. Thus, the onset of artificial shower activity begins sooner and lasts longer with higher ejecta velocities. To produce an artificial meteor shower with 3200 Phaethon as the parent will require higher impact energy than the Deep Impact spacecraft delivered to 9P/Tempel 1.     

Asteroid and comet hazard: Identification problem of observed space objects with the parental bodies

This article focuses on the genetic identification of observed small cosmic bodies with alleged parental bodies; namely, comets, asteroids and meteoroid swarms. There is a problem of the upper D-value limit as a measure of proximity between the orbits of the bodies in the five-dimensional phase space (Southworth and Hawkins, 1963). In the study of genetic relationships of the comet and meteor complexes, the D value is usually taken as equal to 0.2 for all meteor showers. However, the upper D limit should be investigated for each meteoroid complex. For example, such investigation was performed for the Taurid meteor complex (Porub?an et al., 2006). In this paper, the upper D-criterion limit value was investigated for the Perseid meteor shower. The 1862 III Swift–Tuttle comet is its parental comet.     

Ionospheric scintillations at Guilin detected by GPS ground-based and radio occultation observations

The occurrence of ionospheric scintillations with S4 ? 0.2 was studied using GPS measurements at Guilin, China (25.29°N, 110.33°E; geomagnetic: 15.04°N, 181.98°E), a station located near the northern crest of the equatorial anomaly. The results are presented for data collected from January 2009 to March 2010. The results show that nighttime amplitude scintillations only took place in February and March of the considered years, while daytime amplitude scintillations occurred in August and December of 2009. Nighttime amplitude scintillations, observed in the south of Guilin, always occurred with phase scintillations, TEC (Total Electron Content) depletions, and ROT (Rate Of change of TEC) fluctuations. However, TEC depletions and ROT fluctuations were weak during daytime amplitude scintillations, and daytime amplitude scintillations always took place simultaneously for most of the GPS satellites which appeared over Guilin in different azimuth directions. Ground-based GPS scintillation/TEC observations recorded at Guilin and signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) measurements obtained from GPS-COSMIC radio occultation indicate that nighttime and daytime scintillations are very likely caused by ionospheric F region irregularities and sporadic E, respectively. Moreover, strong daytime amplitude scintillations may be associated with the plasma density enhancements in ionospheric E region caused by the Perseid and Geminid meteor shower activities.     

Investigation of infrasound signatures from microbaroms using OH airglow and ground-based microbarometers

In the frame of the European H2020 project ARISE, a short wave infrared (SWIR) InGaAs camera has been operated at the Haute-Provence Observatory, during a night that corresponds to the peak of Geminid meteor shower to investigate infrasound associated with meteor arrivals. This camera allows continuous observations during clear-sky nighttime of the OH airglow layer centered at 87 km. These observations were collocated with Rayleigh lidar measurements providing vertical temperature profiles from the lower stratosphere to the altitude of the OH layer around the mesopause. Spectral analysis of OH images did not allow to detect infrasound associated with meteor trails, however it reveals a peak corresponding to infrasound signals in the frequency band of those produced by ocean swell. Infrasound wave activity observed from ground-based microbarometers as well as the OH camera, appear to be modified with the presence of a temperature inversion described by Rayleigh lidar. Indeed, there is a difference in energy related to infrasonic activity between the first part of the night during the temperature inversion and after the inversion.     

Meteoroid bombardment as a source of the lunar exosphere

The column densities of impact-produced metal atoms in the exosphere during the peaks of activity of the main meteor showers – Geminids, Quadrantids and Perseids – and during quiet periods are estimated. The Na supply rate is estimated to be 2 × 10⁴, 3 × 10³, 10⁴, and 2 × 10⁴ atoms cm⁻² s⁻¹ for sporadic meteoroids, Perseid, Geminid, and Quadrantid meteor showers, respectively. A low upper limit on Ca in the lunar exosphere is explained by the condensation of Ca into dust grains during expansion of the cooling impact-produced vapor cloud. The chemical composition of gas-phase species released to the lunar exosphere during meteoroid impacts has been estimated. Most impact-produced molecules that contain metals are destroyed by solar photons while on ballistic trajectories. Energies of Na, K, Ca, and Mg atoms produced via photolysis of the respective monoxides are estimated to be 0.4, 0.35, 0.6, and 0.45 eV, respectively. The relative content of impact-produced Na and K atoms is maximal at altitudes of about 1000–2000 km and during the main meteor showers, lunar eclipses, and passages of the Moon through the Earth’s magnetosphere.     

Dynamical stability of plasma irregularities produced by powerful radio wave in the F region of the ionosphere

The paper demonstrates that the artificial plasma irregularities in the F region of the ionosphere are dynamical structures caused by the component of temperature gradient parallel with gravitational field. The concept is justified by theoretical estimates of critical parameters of thermal convection in the heated ionospheric volume. Presented results of radar observations of small-scale irregularities are explained by the thermal convection.