On observations of meteor trial diffusion using VHF radar

Abstract

The diffusion of meteor trails has recently been exploited to estimate temperatures in the 80-100 km region of the atmosphere. More recent modeling work suggests that meteoric dust laid down by the trails themselves will affect the diffusion of the trails. This will lead to incorrect temperatures being determined. In this work, we model the diffusion of the trail and confirm a difference in the diffusion of observed meteor trails when sorted by echo strength. We also demonstrate a difference when echoes are sorted by height and by radar frequency. These observational results are in agreement with our simple model.