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(meteorobs) Space.com - 22 November 2002 Leonid Article
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<http://space.com/spacewatch/leonids_fireball_021122.html>
'Truly Spectacular' -
View of Leonids and Northern Lights from NASA DC-8
By Robert Roy Britt
space.com
22 November 2002
A NASA-led team of researchers had the enviable
position of an airplane from which to watch the 2002
Leonid meteor shower. The show they witnessed was far
more than expected.
For a couple of hours Tuesday morning, Nov. 19,
Northern Lights set the sky ablaze with color. These
colorful curtains of light are generated by the
interaction of charged solar particles with Earth's
magnetic field.
"It was incredible!" said George Varros.
Two days before the celebrated peak of the Leonids, on
Nov. 17, Varros and his colleagues saw a tremendous
fireball. These explosively bright meteors are
generated by relatively large bits of comet debris,
perhaps the size of a pea or marble. They are the
showcase scenes in the overall Leonids play.
"From what I can tell, the meteor was actually several
times the brightness of the Full Moon," said Varros,
who developed the system used to track and image
meteors from a NASA DC-8.
The picture, which Varros prepared from a video
capture and provided to SPACE.com today, was taken
over the Atlantic Ocean while the researchers were en
route to Spain. The mission, called Leonid MAC
(Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign), was led by Peter
Jenniskens of NASA's Ames Research Center and the SETI
Institute.
This year, seasoned meteor observers lamented an
overall lack of fireballs compared to recent Leonid
events. Across the board, experienced skywatchers
noted the lack of very bright shooting stars.
Nonetheless, the 2002 version of the shower was
thrilling for many first-time observers and even
people who had watched the Leonids before.
During a brief outburst over North America, several
meteors streaked through the sky each minute.
It was also stunning from on high.
On Nov. 19 in Spain, the morning of the anticipated
twin peaks, Varros, Jenniskens and the others barely
got the DC-8 off the ground in time, under rainy
conditions, to witness the first outburst over Europe
and then head toward North America in hopes of
watching the second flurry.
"The climb out of the cloud deck was slow," Jenniskens
said. "As soon as clouds cleared, we saw many Leonid
meteors."
Soon the first burst arrived.
"The storm was sharp as expected, but also rich in
faint meteors," Jenniskens wrote in an online mission
journal. "Several persistent trains appeared one after
the other."
Jenniskens preliminary estimate of the European peak
is an hourly rate of about 1,000 shooting stars.
The DC-8 pressed on toward Canada, arriving just in
time to witness the second rush of meteors. Jenniskens
reports that this burst was brief, too, as observers
on the ground also noted. It seemed to occur at 5:46
a.m. EST (10:46 UT). The hourly rate, Jenniskens
estimated, was about 1,400.
An analysis from the ground, done by other observers,
suggests the rates might have been higher. Based on
input from dozens of meteor counters around the world,
the International Meteor Organizations says the
European peak produced an hourly rate of 2,350. The
second peak over North American generated 2,660
shooting stars per hour for a brief period.
Estimates of the hourly rates will be massaged for
days to come, however.
Jenniskens recalled the double dose of spectacular
skywatching he was privileged to see: "At the peak of
the storm, the view was truly spectacular. A curtain
of aurora over the northern horizon emitted pulsing
waves of light into the sky, penetrated by a rain of
meteors."
NASA didn't spend money on this trip just to give a
few select astronomers a great show, however.
Jenniskens has for a number of years been collecting
data on Leonids to learn more about the comets from
which meteors come, and how meteors interact with
space. In 2000, he published a study showing that the
seeds of life could survive entry through Earth's
atmosphere in a meteor.
"It will take years to analyze the data gathered
tonight and provide a wealth of data on the working of
comets, the origin of life and the satellite impact
hazard of meteoroids," he said.
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