Long Wavelength Array (LWA) Observations of Meteor Trail Radio Emission: A Laboratory for Terrestrial Plasma Physics

这个项目涉及最近观察到的流星尾迹发射无线电波的现象。电离流星尾迹长期以来一直通过反射无线电信号提供中间层和低热层的温度和风信息。然而，消融流星发射无线电波的机制在很大程度上是未知的。关于流星发射的知识对于在类似时间尺度（秒到分钟）上正在进行的地外物体搜索具有高度相关性。该项目将使用无线电和视频测量来探索流星无线电发射的结构、时间演变和形成机制。 PI望远镜阵列附近的区域装有摄像机。这套无线电和视频测量将用于对流星的轨迹进行三角测量，并拍摄详细的图像来测量流星轨迹的扩展。这些望远镜是一种社区资源，有助于天文学研究，并涉及为大量少数民族人口服务的大学的本科生，研究生和博士后学生。望远镜阵列位于塞维利亚国家野生动物保护区内，并通过野生动物游客中心的专门展览吸引公众。

This project addresses the relatively recently observed phenomenon of radio wave emission by meteor trails. Ionized meteor trails have long been providing temperature and wind information in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere by reflecting radio signals. However, the mechanism for radio wave emission by ablating meteors is largely unknown. Knowledge of meteor emissions is highly pertinent to ongoing searches for extraterrestrial objects on similar time scales (seconds to minutes). This project will use radio and video measurements to explore the structure, time evolution, and formation mechanism of the meteor radio emissions.  The areas near the PI's telescope arrays are instrumented with video cameras. This suite of radio and video measurements will be used to triangulate the trajectories of the meteors, and take detailed images to measure the trail's expansion. The telescopes are a community resource that facilitates astronomical research, and involve undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students at a university serving a large minority population. The telescope arrays are situated within the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, and engage the public through a dedicated exhibit at the wildlife visitor center.