(meteorobs) Daylight detection of meteor fireballs

Ed Majden epmajden at shaw.ca
Fri May 29 11:47:16 EDT 2009


Forward from meteor scientist and spectra expert re the IR signature  
of meteor fireballs!  Sounds like a possible solution for recording  
daylight fireballs.  Worth experimenting with if you can find the  
proper filter for the Na l  line.  Thanks for your comments Jiri.
Ed Majden

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Jiri Borovicka
> Subject: Re:  IR Signature of Meteors in the near IR
>
> Dear Ed,
>
> although I have no direct data, I suppose that slow fireballs do  
> not have
> bright emission lines in the infrared (in contrast to fast fireballs
> like Perseids, which have O I, N I, Ca II emissions). Very bright slow
> fireballs (-20 mag) will have strong continuum in all parts of the
> spectrum. Such fireballs can be, nevertheless, easily seen in daylight
> in any case.
>
> I guess that daytime observations could be enhanced by using a narrow
> filter centered on the Na I line. Sodium line is bright in almost
> all meteors and is present in absorption in solar spectrum, so the
> background should not be particularly bright. Still, the limiting
> magnitude will be much worse than during nighttime observations.
>
> With regards
>
> Jiri
>
>



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