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(meteorobs) "Leonid Storm Flux Analysis from One Leonid Mac Video AL50R [1999]"


At the behest of one Bob Hawkes of Canada, I happened on this abstract
of a fine paper from "1998EM&P...82...221", by 'meteorobs' readers Pete
Gural & Dr Peter Jenniskens, on Harvard "ADS Abstract Service":

http://adsabs.harvarddot edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1998EM%26P...82..221G&db
_key=AST&high=3aae803c9b02035

(Please take note of the Abstract copyright notice.)


There is a similarly intriguing paper from the same issue of "Earth Moon &
Planets", on the *entire* UWO-USAF-NASA 1999 Leonid campaign. That paper is
primarily authored by Drs. Peter Brown, Bob Hawkes, Peter Jenniskens, and
Mr. Pete Gural. However, it generously appends a LONG list of "co-authors"
(i.e., participants in the various local campaigns of that effort), among
them yours truly, and fellow amateurs Jim Bedient and Mike Morrow. :)

The broad paper has the catchy title, "Global Ground-Based Electro-Optical
and Radar Observations of the 1999 Leonid Shower: First Results", citation
reference "1998EM&P...82...167B". But unfortunately, the ADS Service will
display neither an Abstract nor the full text for this broader paper.

Enjoy!
Lew Gramer

==============================================================================
Title:    Leonid Storm Flux Analysis from One Leonid Mac Video AL50R
Authors:  Gural, Peter S.; Jenniskens, Peter
Affiliation: Gural - Science Applications International Corporation,
              4001 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 500, Arlington, Virginia 22203, USA
              peter.s.gural@saic.com
             Jenniskens - The SETI Institute, NASA Ames Research Center,
              Mail Stop 239-4, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA
              pjenniskens@mail.arc.nasadot gov

Journal:  Earth, Moon, and Planets, v. 82/83, p. 221-247 (1998).
Publication Date: 00/1998
EM&P Keywords: CLUSTERING, FLUX, FRAGMENTATION, LEONIDS 1999, METEOR,
METEOROID, OPTIMAL VIDEO POINTING, SATELLITE IMPACT HAZARD, SIMULATION

Abstract Copyright: (c) 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers
Bibliographic Code: 1998EM&P...82..221G

==============================================================================
ABSTRACT:

A detailed meteor flux analysis is presented of a seventeen-minute portion of
one videotape, collected on November 18, 1999, during the Leonid
Multi-instrument Aircraft Campaign. The data was recorded around the peak of the
Leonid meteor storm using an intensified CCD camera pointed towards the low
southern horizon. Positions of meteors on the sky were measured. These measured
meteor distributions were compared to a Monte Carlo simulation, which is a new
approach to parameter estimation for mass ratio and flux. Comparison of
simulated flux versus observed flux levels, seen between 1:50:00 and 2:06:41 UT,
indicate a magnitude population index of r = 1.8 +/- 0.1 and mass ratio of
s = 1.64 +/- 0.06. The average spatial density of the material contributing to
the Leonid storm peak is measured at 0.82 +/- 0.19 particles per square
kilometer per hour for particles of at least absolute visual magnitude +6.5.
Clustering analysis of the arrival times of Leonids impacting the earth's
atmosphere over the total observing interval shows no enhancement or clumping
down to time scales of the video frame rate. This indicates a uniformly random
temporal distribution of particles in the stream encountered during the 1999
epoch. Based on the observed distribution of meteors on the sky and the model
distribution, recommendations are made for the optimal pointing directions for
video camera meteor counts during future ground and airborne missions.
==============================================================================


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