The influence of meteoroid rotation on the diffraction characteristics of underdense radio-meteors

Abstract

We discuss the problem of meteor plasma formation and consequently of radio-wave scattering from an ionized meteor trails produced by rotating meteoroids. The problem is solved under the following approximations: the meteoroid is represented by a cube, its rotation axis is perpendicular to the velocity vector, meteoroid deceleration can be neglected, the only acting ablation mechanism is the evaporation, the deionization effects are negligibly small. In this case the ambipolar diffusion approximation applies, and, supposing that the source of free electrons is known, the distribution of free electrons inside a trail, Ne(r, t), considered as a function of position and time, can be computed. It is shown that the electron distribution along a trail axis oscillates, which is not the case with respect to the radial distribution. The function Ne(r, t) found is then used for the solution of the problem of the scattering of radio-waves on the underdense-type trails produced by rotating particles. The values for amplitude-time as well as phase-time characteristics computed under the above assumptions differ only very slightly from those computed when meteoroid rotation is not taken into consideration.