(meteorobs) Strange Lightcurves

[Chris Peterson]

It may be that these are particles which enter, flare up, and lose a lot 
of their mass to ablation, which is why they become dim. So far, like 
any meteor. But perhaps before burning up completely they fragment, 
exposing lots more internal surface, so they flare up a second time. We 
certainly see this effect with large fireballs; I don't see why it 
couldn't happen with much smaller meteors as well. I do think it's 
pretty rare- I've caught a few with the allsky cameras, but that's just 
a few out of tens of thousands.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "mark_vornhusen" <mark at vornhusen.de>
To: <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2007 12:45 PM
Subject: (meteorobs) Strange Lightcurves


Hi,
I noticed that some meteors become nearly invisible for a moment and
then reappear again. Here are two examples, taken with an xx1332 image
intensifierer and 120mm lens (crops from original 720x576 pixel video,
1/25s per frame):
http://www.parhelia.de/storm/2007/meteor_20070910_013826.gif
http://www.parhelia.de/storm/2007/meteor_20070912_022427.gif

I'm looking for an explanation of this phenomenon. Any ideas?

Mark