[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Meteor brightnesses and spectra
At 12:30 PM 3/23/97 -0800, you wrote:
>The eye is most sensitive to
>the green region of the spectrum and meteor radiation is generally stronger
>in the blue region where the eye is not as sensitive. This is especially
>true of high velocity meteors such as the Perseids as the Ca+ lines are
>strong in high velocity meteors.
>Edward Majden epmajden@mars.ark.com
This really piqued my questioning mind, Ed! What you're saying seems to imply that there's a complex (i.e., nonlinear, discrete) relationship between meteor velocities and meteor spectral peaks (or "colors", for lack of a better word)!
Is this true?! Also, are there shower-specific non-velocity factors which affect spectral features? I'd assume there must be, with the variety of different origin objects that spawn streams (Oort cloud comets, Kuiper belt comets, dead comets and/or asteroids, maybe others too?)
Also, has the IMO researched doing any magnitude distribution corrections for these spectrum-related effects? They must be small, but over time, individual observers' eye spectral responses seem like they might introduce some pretty significant systematic errors for particular showers...
Lew, always the theoretical wannabe