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Recent Advances in Video Meteor PhotometryOne of the most common (and obvious) problems with video meteor data involves the saturation of the output signal produced by bright meteors, resulting in the elimination of such meteors from photometric determinations. It is important to realize that a "bright" meteor recorded by intensified meteor camera is not what would be considered "bright" by a visual observer - indeed, many Generation II or III camera systems are saturated by meteors with a visual magnitude of 3, barely even noticeable to the untrained eye. As the relatively small fields of view (approx.30 ) of the camera systems captures at best modest numbers of meteors, even during storm peaks, the loss of meteors brighter than +3 renders the determination of shower population indices from video observations even more difficult. Considerable effort has been devoted by the authors to the study of the meteor camera systems employed during the Marshall Space Flight Center s Leonid ground-based campaigns, and a calibration scheme has been devised which can extend the useful dynamic range of such systems by approximately 4 magnitudes. The calibration setup involves only simple equipment, available to amateur and professional, and it is hoped that use of this technique will make for better meteor photometry, and move video meteor analysis beyond the realm of simple counts.
Document ID
20030069020
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Swift, Wesley R.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Suggs, Robert M.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Meachem, Terry
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Cooke, William J.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
July 1, 2003
Subject Category
Instrumentation And Photography
Meeting Information
Meeting: 2003 Leonid MAC Conference
Location: Moffett Field, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: August 27, 2003
End Date: August 30, 2003
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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