The Characteristics of Persistent Sporadic Meteor Echoes

Abstract

This paper examines the frequency distribution of the durations of nearly 8000 persistent radio echoes from sporadic meteors recorded at Adelaide during 1957. The maximum line densities in the trails formed by these meteors exceed 1013 electrons/em, corresponding to visual magnitudes < +3. As the echo duration increases, the numbers of echoes are found to fall progressively further below the numbers expected from a power-law distribution. No significant seasonal or diurnal variation in the mass distribution of the meteors examined is apparent.