Determining meteoroid properties using head echo observations from the Jicamarca radio observatory

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dc.contributor.advisorOppenheim, Meers
dc.contributor.authorFucetola, Elizabeth N.
dc.date.accessioned2019-04-15T11:22:07Z
dc.date.available2019-04-15T11:22:07Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstractOver 100 tons of material enters the Earth’s atmosphere every day, mostly in the form of meteoroids less than a millimeter across. As a meteoroid enters the atmosphere, it ablates and forms a plasma. Radars can detect this plasma, which travels at approximately the same speed as the meteoroid, as a head echo. Such observations can determine the speed and trajectory of a meteoroid with high accuracy. A better characterization of these small particles will contribute to our understanding of the Earth’s atmosphere, the solar system, and the local interstellar medium. Meteoroids provide a source of heavy metals at high altitudes that impact atmospheric chemistry and physics. Greater knowledge of the composition and masses of meteoroids will help astronomers understand the material within the solar system and the local interstellar medium. This dissertation focuses on meteoroid head echo observations using the 50 MHz radar at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory. These provide high resolution observations in both range and time. We use this data to evaluate methods of determining meteoroid properties and introduce a technique to determine meteoroid mass which involves fitting range and velocity measurements to an ablation model. This technique is compared with some established mass estimation methods, including scattering mass theory. We find the overall mass distribution for observed meteoroids as well as the spatial distribution of these particles. The peak of our mass distribution, at approximately 10-11 kg, is significantly lower than what is found using specular meteor radars. We illustrate how the spatial distribution varies with meteoroid mass, and how different meteoroid sources appear when different mass ranges are examined. For the smallest meteoroids, only the Apex sources are detected, while all six of the dominant meteor sources are observed with comparable intensity when examining meteors with a mass larger than 10-9 kg. We also directly compare meteor data taken with the 50 MHz radar to observations using a specular meteor radar in a novel experiment using both instruments simultaneously.es_ES
dc.description.uriTesises_ES
dc.formatapplication/pdfes_ES
dc.identifier.citationFucetola, E. N. (2012).==$Determining meteoroid properties using head echo observations from the Jicamarca radio observatory$==(Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy). Boston University, United States.es_ES
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12816/4460
dc.language.isoenges_ES
dc.publisherBoston Universityes_ES
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccesses_ES
dc.subjectMeteoroidses_ES
dc.subjectEchoeses_ES
dc.subjectRadares_ES
dc.subjectSpace distributiones_ES
dc.subject.ocdehttp://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#1.03.00es_ES
dc.subject.ocdehttp://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#1.05.01es_ES
dc.titleDetermining meteoroid properties using head echo observations from the Jicamarca radio observatoryes_ES
dc.typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesises_ES
thesis.degree.disciplineAstronomyes_ES
thesis.degree.grantorBoston University. Graduate School of Arts and Scienceses_ES
thesis.degree.levelDoctoradoes_ES
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyes_ES

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