Two strong activity peaks of the Leonid meteor shower were
predicted. The times fell between 03:48 to 04:04 UT for the
first one, and between 10:23 to 10:47 UT for the second peak,
both on November 19, 2002.
A first activity analysis from the reports of 86 observers,
who logged 19443 Leonids, is given below. The ZHR refers to
a stellar limiting magnitude of .5, a radiant elevation of
90 deg, and counts of single observers. A population index
of r=2 was applied, although the inspection of data suggests
a large abundance of faint meteors, thus a larger r. The
ZHRs would increase likewise.
The peak time of the first maximum is 04:10 UT with ZHR=2350.
The second peak is found near 10:50 UT or a few minutes ear-
lier with ZHR=2660. Both peaks occurred later than the pre-
dictions by about the same time lapse. The predictions of
the Leonid stream model of Vaubaillon (WGN 30:5, 2002) are
closest to reality according to this first analysis.
--------------------------------------
Nov UT Sollong N LEO ZHR +
--------------------------------------
16 2000 234.257 2 10 19 6
17 0300 234.551 6 15 6 2
17 2200 235.349 13 96 37 4
18 0400 235.601 12 78 26 3
18 2000 236.273 21 431 98 5
18 2300 236.399 22 195 100 7
19 0000 236.441 26 330 101 6
19 0110 236.490 27 271 188 11
19 0140 236.511 24 218 201 14
19 0210 236.532 21 266 249 15
19 0220 236.539 20 332 305 17
19 0240 236.553 36 342 300 16
19 0255 236.564 16 157 275 22
19 0306 236.571 22 205 375 26
19 0316 236.578 28 329 497 27
19 0327 236.586 27 484 583 27
19 0335 236.591 48 1047 756 23
19 0343 236.597 20 412 930 46
19 0345 236.599 32 719 1162 43
19 0353 236.604 35 768 1344 49
19 0358 236.608 47 1341 1542 42
19 0402 236.610 36 1248 1966 56
19 0408 236.615 31 1335 2353 64
19 0413 236.618 17 912 2332 77
19 0418 236.622 30 1253 1995 57
19 0426 236.627 35 933 1367 45
19 0436 236.634 38 681 989 38
19 0447 236.642 24 416 635 31
19 0500 236.651 31 395 675 34
19 0518 236.664 50 505 1014 45
19 0535 236.676 22 189 572 42
19 0555 236.690 15 97 144 15
19 0620 236.707 15 87 142 15
19 0800 236.777 14 166 272 21
19 0905 236.823 21 217 307 21
19 0930 236.840 27 99 152 15
19 0947 236.852 21 72 267 32
19 1000 236.861 21 128 293 26
19 1010 236.868 31 192 707 51
19 1018 236.874 19 396 907 46
19 1023 236.877 15 134 965 83
19 1030 236.882 27 288 1364 80
19 1040 236.889 26 350 2108 112
19 1050 236.896 28 587 2656 110
19 1100 236.903 19 297 1061 62
19 1112 236.912 17 130 490 43
19 1135 236.928 7 184 366 27
19 2200 237.366 6 99 123 12
20 0500 237.660 11 4 10 5
---------------------------------------------
Solar longitudes refer to equinox J2000.0, N is the number
of observing periods involved in the average ZHR, LEO is the
number of Leonid meteors. The error of the ZHR is simply
ZHR/sqrt(LEO) here. No special zenith exponent was applied
to account for non-geometrical effects in radiant elevation
correction.
We are very grateful to the enthusiastic community of meteor
observers who have sent in their results, mostly through the
online express form. All observers are encouraged to send
their FULL DATA including magnitudes and possibly shorter
time-bins for the counts within the next week.
(An error in the online form script has lead to erroneous out-
put in geographical latitude and radiant elevation; the actual
results presented here are not affected though.)
V. Krumov, M. Gyssens, R. Arlt
2002 November 22 |