Emission spectrum and orbital elements of a sporadic fireball imaged in 2011

Abstract

The characterisation of physical and chemical properties of meteoroids can be performed from the analysis of meteor and fireball events. This provides useful information about the origin and evolution of meteoroid streams and meteoroids of sporadic origin, but also about the mechanisms that deliver these materials to the Earth One of the systems that the SPanish Meteor Network (SPMN) employs to study the activity of meteor streams is based on high-sensitivity CCD video cameras. These devices, which are commonly used to monitor the night sky, provide useful data for the determination, for instance, of radiant, orbital and photometric parameters [1, 2, 3]. They are also very useful for meteor spectroscopy [3]. As a matter of fact, the recording and analysis of meteor spectra is one of the goals of our network, and some of our observing stations perform a continuous spectroscopic campaign since 2006. In this context, we analyze here a mag. -10 sporadic fireball recorded from two of our meteor stations on October 4, 2011.