Detection of radio emission from fireballs

Abstract

We present the findings from the Prototype All-Sky Imager, a back end correlator of the first station of the Long Wavelength Array, which has recorded over 11,000 hr of all-sky images at frequencies between 25 and 75 MHz. In a search of this data for radio transients, we have found 49 long-duration (10 s of seconds) transients. Ten of these transients correlate both spatially and temporally with large meteors (fireballs), and their signatures suggest that fireballs emit a previously undiscovered low frequency, non-thermal pulse. This emission provides a new probe into the physics of meteors and identifies a new form of naturally occurring radio transient foreground. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..