ACES Trainee Presentation to the ACES Visiting Committee
Elizabeth Bass
Astronomy Department - Boston University
Friday - November 30, 2007
Physics Research Building - Room 595

"Using Simulations to Determine Meteoroid Mass from Head Echo Data"

High-power, large-aperture (HPLA) radar observations can be used to determine meteoroid properties such as mass. In this talk, I will show why the standard approach of fitting a polynomial to HPLA velocity measurements produces inaccurate results. I suggest an alternate approach, fitting velocity data to an ablation model. I compare both methods using data taken at Jicamarca Radio Observatory.