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Analysis of 3D Kinetic Simulations of Meteor Trails
Author(s) -
Tarnecki Liane,
Oppenheim Meers
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1029/2020ja028889
Subject(s) - meteoroid , radar , meteor (satellite) , atmosphere (unit) , turbulence , physics , altitude (triangle) , population , kinetic energy , meteorology , wavelength , geology , remote sensing , computational physics , optics , computer science , geometry , astronomy , telecommunications , mathematics , demography , quantum mechanics , sociology
Radars detect plasma trails created by the billions of small meteoroids that enter the Earth's atmosphere daily, returning data used to infer characteristics of the meteoroid population and upper atmosphere. Researchers use models to investigate the dynamic evolution of the trails, enabling them to better interpret radar results. This study presents a fully kinetic, three‐dimensional code to explore the effects of three trail characteristics: length, neutral wind speed, and ablation altitude. The simulations characterize the turbulence that develops as the trail evolves and these are compared to radar data. They also show that neutral winds drive the formation of waves and turbulence in trails, and that wave amplitudes increase with neutral wind speed. The finite trail simulations demonstrate that the bulk motion of the trail flows with the neutral wind. A detailed analysis of simulated trail spectra yield spectral widths and evaluate signal strength as a function of aspect angle. Waves propagate primarily along the length of the trail in all cases, and most power is in modes perpendicular toB ⃗ . Persistent waves develop at wavelengths corresponding to the gradient scale length of the original trail. Our results show that the rate at which power drops with respect to aspect angle in meter‐scale modes increases from 5.7 to 6.9 dB/degree with a 15 km increase in altitude. The results will allow researchers to draw more detailed and accurate information from non‐specular radar observations of meteors.