Estimating trajectories of meteors: an observational Monte Carlo approach - I. Theory

被引:38
作者
Vida, Denis [1 ,2 ]
Gural, Peter S. [3 ]
Brown, Peter G. [2 ,4 ]
Campbell-Brown, Margaret [2 ,4 ]
Wiegert, Paul [2 ,4 ]
机构
[1] Univ Western Ontario, Dept Earth Sci, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada
[2] Univ Western Ontario, Dept Phys & Astron, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
[3] Gural Software & Anal LLC, Sterling, VA 20164 USA
[4] Univ Western Ontario, Ctr Planetary Sci & Explorat, London, ON N6A 5B8, Canada
基金
加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会;
关键词
comets; meteors; meteoroids; methods: data analysis; SIMULTANEOUS RADAR; FAINT METEORS; VIDEO; VELOCITIES; ABLATION; FIREBALL; MODEL;
D O I
10.1093/mnras/stz3160
中图分类号
P1 [天文学];
学科分类号
0704 ;
摘要
It has recently been shown by Egal et al. that some types of existing meteor in-atmosphere trajectory estimation methods may be less accurate than others, particularly when applied to high-precision optical measurements. The comparative performance of trajectory solution methods has previously only been examined for a small number of cases. Besides the radiant, orbital accuracy depends on the estimation of pre-atmosphere velocities, which have both random and systematic biases. Thus, it is critical to understand the uncertainty in velocity measurement inherent to each trajectory estimation method. In this first of a series of two papers, we introduce a novel meteor trajectory estimation method that uses the observed dynamics of meteors across stations as a global optimization function and that does not require either a theoretical or an empirical flight model to solve for velocity. We also develop a 3D observational meteor trajectory simulator that uses a meteor ablation model to replicate the dynamics of meteoroid flight, as a means to validate different trajectory solvers. We both test this new method and compare it to other methods, using synthetic meteors from three major showers spanning a wide range of velocities and geometries (Draconids, Geminids, and Perseids). We determine which meteor trajectory solving algorithm performs better for all-sky, moderate field-of-view, and high-precision narrow-field optical meteor detection systems. The results are presented in the second paper in this series. Finally, we give detailed equations for estimating meteor trajectories and analytically computing meteoroid orbits, and provide the PYTHON code of the methodology as open-source software.
引用
收藏
页码:2688 / 2705
页数:18
相关论文
共 36 条
[1]  
[Anonymous], 1998, ASTRONOMICAL ALGORIT
[2]  
AYERS WG, 1965, D2931 NASA TN
[3]   The Quickhull algorithm for convex hulls [J].
Barber, CB ;
Dobkin, DP ;
Huhdanpaa, H .
ACM TRANSACTIONS ON MATHEMATICAL SOFTWARE, 1996, 22 (04) :469-483
[4]   Atmospheric deceleration and light curves of Draconid meteors and implications for the structure of cometary dust [J].
Borovicka, J. ;
Spurny, P. ;
Koten, P. .
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS, 2007, 473 (02) :661-672
[5]  
BOROVICKA J, 1990, B ASTRON I CZECH, V41, P391
[6]  
Burke JohnG., 1986, Cosmic Debris: Meteorites in History
[7]   On the fine structure of sunspot penumbrae - I. A quantitative comparison of two semiempirical models with implications for the Evershed effect [J].
Borrero, JA ;
Solanki, SK ;
Rubio, LRB ;
Lagg, A ;
Mathew, SK .
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS, 2004, 422 (03) :1093-1104
[8]  
CEPLECHA Z, 1979, B ASTRON I CZECH, V30, P349
[9]  
CEPLECHA Z, 1987, B ASTRON I CZECH, V38, P222
[10]   Meteor phenomena and bodies [J].
Ceplecha, Z ;
Borovicka, J ;
Elford, WG ;
Revelle, DO ;
Hawkes, RL ;
Porubcan, V ;
Simek, M .
SPACE SCIENCE REVIEWS, 1998, 84 (3-4) :327-471