| A Fresnel transform technique has been developed at Adelaide to analyse
radar meteor echoes detected in the transverse mode. The genesis for this
technique was the study of the structure of the scattering ionization
immediately behind the head of the trail, in order to deduce the degree of
fragmentation of the ablating meteoroid. The technique has been remarkably
successful in not only giving insight into the fragmentation of meteoroids,
but also revealing other significant features of the trails including
diffusion, lateral motion of the trail during formation due to wind drift,
and phase of the scattered signal in the vicinity of the head of the trail.
A serendipitous outcome of the analysis is the measurement of the speed and
deceleration of the meteoroid producing the trail to a precision far
exceeding that available from any other method applied to transverse scatter
data.
Examples of the outcomes of the technique applied to meteor echoes obtained
with a 54MHz narrow beam radar are presented. |