The Determination of the Initial Radii of Meteor Trains

Abstract

Estimates of the spatial density, mass distribution and velocity characteristics of interplanetary matter derived from observations of radio-meteors may contain uncertainties if neglect is made of the initial transverse dimensions of the ionized meteor trains. Observations of radio-meteors employing a dual wavelength system are described and values of train initial radius together with their variation with height and meteoroid velocity are presented. It is demonstrated that in order to yield reliable data concerning the parameters of meteoric matter from radio echo observations it is of importance to employ a low frequency system.