Hiroshi Ogawa, head of the International Project for Radio Meteor Observation, asked radio detection stations from around the world to observe the Leonids during the period of November 1 to November 25, 2002.
Note: Brower was located in Loveland, Colorado at the time of the study and not in West Kelowna.
The following graph shows three stations located in Slovenia, USA, and Japan. The three stations data help trace the overall activity of the 2002 Leonids. Notice how as the radian lowered in the sky in Slovenia the radiant was rising for Colorado. Similarly, as the radiant dipped to the west of Colorado it was climbing higher in the sky in Japan, thus giving a continuous view of the overall stream activity over time.
One of the most rewarding part of the 2002 Leonid study was the recording of a predicted filament of the comet’s ejecta by Yrjöllä and Brower.
In chapter 14 of Jennniskens book, Meteor Showers and their Parents (Jenniskens 2006:201-215) gives a detail discussion of the filament and why it is important. He states:
Jupiter’s past perturbations may have responsible for the sudden onset of the component in 1994… I expected the dust component would remain visible post perihelion for at least slightly less than one orbit of Jupiter (<12 yr), thus until 2004 or 2005.I saw this validated in 2002, when the Filament component was detected for the first time after the perihelion passage of the comet, underlying two very narrow Leonid storm profiles (Fig. 14.41) The observed shift in the peak time and constant width over the years 1994 to 2002 (Table 4) confirms that this component moves about the earth’s path much like individual dust trails in reflection to the ever changing gravitational field of the planets (shaded area in Fig 14.15). Again, more or less following the sun’s reflex motion. (Ibid:214-215)
(Place Fig 14-41 Yrjöllä and Brower here)
More to come…
Jenniskens, P. 2006. Meteor Showers and their Parents, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.