(meteorobs) Geminids (Meteorobs)

RainerArlt rarlt at aip.de
Fri Aug 20 04:41:23 EDT 2004


> >Geminid meteors that are seen up until the peak are generally rather faint. But once the
> >peak is reached, the incidence of bright meteors and fireballs tends to noticeably increase.
> 
> This was an interesting point, Joe! Are there any papers giving data to show this changing
> 'r' factor as the shower peaks? 

The population index decreases _through_ the peak; the fraction of 
bright meteors is gradually becoming larger, and is obviously 
large in the night after the maximum. That effect is most 
prominent in the Geminids and is called 'mass sorting'. Galina
Ryabova from Tomsk is modelling the Geminid stream, but I don't 
have the Proceedings of the recent IMCs at hand where her newest
results are in. Let's see wat she is telling us at the 2004 IMC
in Bulgaria.

For the population index profile see WGN, Journal of the IMO,
32:2 (April), the article by Juergen Rendtel who has studied
visual Geminid observations extensively over the last years.

Best wishes,
Rainer


-- 
Rainer Arlt  --  Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam -- www.aip.de
Visual Commission - International Meteor Organization -- www.imo.net
rarlt at aip.de --  phone: +49-331-7499-354  --  fax: +49-331-7499-526



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