Solar cycle & meteor rates

[Jeremy Shears]

“Solar cycle variation in meteor rates” is the intriguing title of an MNRAS pre-print which appeared today. This confirms that Solar activity affects the observed rate of meteors via its affect the Earth’s atmosphere. Solar activity can depress the observed meteor flux by 30% at the highest solar flux. I hadn’t appreciated there was such a correlation, but it was first mooted in 1949 when Bumba reviewed visual meteor records from 1844 to 1943, and found that the rates peaked 5 years after maximum solar activity, and were lowest two years after solar minimum. More details in the paper…..

[John Cook]

A very interesting paper, thanks for mentioning it. I will bring it to the attention of the meteor recorders within the radio astronomy group. One item of direct interest to me is correcting for the varying day length through the year in our solar flare (SID) observations. Dealing with small number statistics is rather tricky!

[Bill Ward]

…”small number statistics…” I agree!, mmm, lies, damned lies and statistics.

Quite fascinating though…

I can’t remember where but it was a claimed correlation between large meteor showers and rainfall, I don’t think that one stood the test of time.

Cheers,

Bill.

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