Determining meteoroid bulk densities using a plasma scattering model with high-power large-aperture radar data

We present an improved technique for calculating bulk densities of low-mass (<1 g) meteoroids using a scattering model applied to the high-density plasma formed around the meteoroid as it enters Earth’s atmosphere. These plasmas, referred to as head echoes, travel at or near the speed of the meteoroid, thereby allowing the determination of the ballistic coefficient (mass divided by physical cross-section), which depends upon speed and deceleration. Concurrently, we apply a scattering model to the returned signal strength of the head echo in order to correlate radar-cross-section (RCS) to plasma density and meteoroid mass. In this way, we can uniquely solve for the meteoroid mass, radius and bulk density independently. We have applied this new technique to head echo data collected in 2007 and 2008 simultaneously at VHF (160 MHz) and UHF (422 MHz) at ALTAIR, which is a high-power large-aperture radar located on the Kwajalein Atoll. These data include approximately 20,000 detections with dual-frequency, dual-polarization, and monopulse (i.e. angle) returns. From 2000 detections with the smallest monopulse errors, we find a mean meteoroid bulk density of 0.9 g/cm3 with observations spanning almost three orders of magnitude from 0.01 g/cm3 to 8 g/cm3. Our results show a clear dependence between meteoroid bulk density and altitude of head echo formation, as well as dependence between meteoroid bulk density and 3D speed. The highest bulk densities are detected at the lowest altitudes and lowest speeds. Additionally, we stipulate that the approximations used to derive the ballistic parameter, in addition to neglecting fragmentation, suggest that the traditional ballistic parameter must be used with caution when determining meteoroid parameters.