Perseid Meteor Shower Radio Echoes from Minneapolis

[skeezix]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxP9pmxFrKbb8I0nm4ygt4w

SDRMusings

When a meteor enters the atmosphere at high velocity it burns up leaving trails, sometimes even visible during daylight, though the majority of meteor trails can only be seen at night. However another method of meteor detection exists which does not need dark skies, and also is far more sensitive, detecting micro meteors not visible even during the night. This method involves the use of radios and antennas.

As meteors burn up in the atmosphere between 80 km and 110 km altitude they ionize (stripping electrons off atoms) the air. This ionized air under the right conditions functions as a "mirror" for radio frequency waves (such as shortwave transmissions, TV stations, FM radio, radars.) The mirror exists only for a brief period, but long enough to detect reflected radio waves.

This stream uses the  RSP1A with various SDR softwares. RF signal is off analog TV station in Sault Ste. Maries, Ontario, Canada. Receiving antenna is purpose build 3 element Yagi located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, pointing ENE. Best echoes occur late evening through late morning, US time.  For a detailed explanation of how this works visit http://www.meteorecho.com , else read on.

A brief explanation of what you are seeing and hearing here. The background noise is static, as are the blue specks moving across the screen. There is always static when monitoring RF frequencies. I work hard on minimizing it but it can not be eliminated. Occasionally the static increases significantly because of either neighborhood activities or atmospheric noise, looking like a carpet of colors moving across the screen accompanied by lots of noise. Eventually it goes away. Lightning from thunderstorms will show up as colorful bands about an inch wide moving across the screen.

A meteor echo will make a sound above the background noise and generate a colored spot or streak ranging from yellow to red. Occasionally very strong meteor echoes will occur which generate long streaks and sounds, often accompanied by multiple side streaks the result of either FFT windowing artifacts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_...) or Fresnel oscillations (https://www.imo.net/observations/meth...).

#meteors
#meteorechoes

Copyright © 2021 Meteorecho.com. All rights reserved.