Abstract
We investigate the morphological variation of classical meteor light curves, under the constant velocity assumption, for a series of idealized atmospheric density profiles. We look specifically at the t rise/t fall ratio, which compares the rise time to maximum brightness against the time to fall from maximum brightness. We demonstrate that for a classical meteoroid undergoing rapid ablation in an isothermal atmosphere that t rise/t fall > 1, indicating that all such light curves are late peaked. For a classical meteoroid ablating in a region over which the density is constant, t rise/t fall ≡ 0, and the light curve is necessarily downward concave in the height vs. intensity diagram. If ablation occurs over a region in which the density increases linearly with decreasing height, then t rise/t fall = 1/(✓5 - 1) ≈ 0.81, indicative of an early peaked, near symmetric light curve.
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Beech, M., Hargrove, M. (2005). Classical Meteor Light Curve Morphology. In: Hawkes, R., Mann, I., Brown, P. (eds) Modern Meteor Science An Interdisciplinary View. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5075-5_37
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5075-5_37
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Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-5075-6
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