Fluxes of Sporadic Meteoroids from Optical Measurements

The purpose of this study was to develop a process to measure the mass distribution index, the speed distribution, and the flux of the sporadic meteor sources using an electro-optical system. Data was recorded on two nights, April 27 and May 6, 2006, and the system was tested by measuring the flux of the eta Aquariid meteor shower. Eta Aquariid fluxes yielded ZHRs of 14.3 ± 4.5 meteors hr'1and 65 ± 10 meteors hr'1 on the measured nights in agreement with literature values (Rendtel, 1997). The mass index of sporadic meteors was s = 2.14 ± 0.12 and the speed distributions were found to be in agreement with radar measurements by Campbell- Brown (2008). The estimated total annual flux from all sporadic sources was: 0.226 ± 0.018 meteors km'2hr'! and 0.151 ± 0.023 meteors km^hr"1brighter than magnitude 4.72 ±0.19 for April 27 and May 6 respectively.

Name thesis:degree_name

M Sc

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Braid, David G.

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Campbell-Brown, Margaret
• Wiegert, Paul

• meteor
• meteoroid
• meteor flux
• zhr
• zenithal hourly rate
• sporadic meteors
• sporadic sources

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/19172

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/19172