Using Acoustic Shock Waves from Optically detected Shower Meteors to Constrain Fireball Energetics

The extra-terrestrial mass flux on Earth is not well known with uncertainties of about a factor of ten relative to the estimated averages. We use seismological recordings of acoustic waves generated by meteoroids to calculate their mass and energy, because seismic stations are relatively densely distributed and the recordings are freely available. We want to determine the amplitude- or energy-coupling coefficients between the air wave and the seismic recording which depends on several parameters such as the physical properties of the air and the solid ground and the incidence angle. We want to determine these coupling coefficients for recording sites in North America and their dependencies on seismic installation parameters, geology, topography and azimuthal direction. For this project we combine expertise in meteoroid science (Western University Ontario) and seismology (KIT Karlsruhe) to achieve a step forward in mass flux calculations.

Faculty Supervisor:

Peter Brown

Student:

Partner:

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Education

University:

The University of Western Ontario

Program: