[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: (meteorobs) Re: Fireballs
Bob Lunsford wrote:
> I would estimate that 25% or less of all the
fireballs I have seen are sporadic.
> I would agree this percentage is skewed toward
the dates of shower activity. Stating this, I would still venture to say that if
one were to view on all nights of the year, half of the fireball activity
would still be produced by known showers.
...and Ed Majden wrote:
> Fireball rates are definitely skewed to
the dates of shower activity. See Halliday, Griffin and Blackwell's
paper in MAPS 31, 185-217 (1996) "Detailed data for 259 fireballs from the
Canadian camera network----". Table 1 lists the distribution of 754
fireballs by day of the year. It shows much increased activity in August
(Perseids), November (Leonids), December (Geminids)
Thank you,
gentlemen. I'm not sure you both took my intent of the word "skewed" the same
way. I meant, as Bob interpreted it, that his *observations* might be
skewed towards seeing a somewhat higher than representative percentage of
fireballs on nights of major showers simply because he would be more likely
to be observing on those nights.
It is clear
from both of your comments that many more fireballs do indeed occur on
those nights. Without having read the cited article, I would suspect the
Canadian camera network data would *not* be skewed as it would presumably have
been operational virtually any night, whether a shower was happening or not,
making its counts less subject to observer preferences. It would still be skewed
by natural factors such as seasonal weather or hours of darkness in summer vs.
winter. In either case detailed statistics could be standardized, if one cared
to take the trouble, by calculating fireballs per unit Teff on a given
date. But you needn't bother on my account; I am happy to accept Bob's and Ed's
words as a definitive answer to my question.
regards,
Bruce
References: