Meteor Science Issues Addressed Via UHF Radar Meteor Observations at Arecibo Observatory

摘要

Over the past 8 years UHF radar meteor observations made at Arecibo Observatory (Puerto Rico) have evolved significantly while several long-standing meteor science issues have been solved and new ones raised. We review the current signal processing and observational techniques and, while considering possible biases in these observations, find none. Doppler observations ― now at resolutions of <10 m/sec for meteor speeds ranging to nearly 100 km/sec ― have resolved issues related to the speed-distribution of at least micrometeoroids and micrometeoroid mass fluxes have been found. We note that the technique reported here bears essentially no resemblance to the "classical" meteor radar technique.