Radio meteor detection in Malaysia

Radio Astronomy

Abstract

T Meteor is a luminous effect, light is created as the rocky body is frictionally heated to incandescence when entering Earth's atmosphere. The ionized trails of the meteor are also capable of reflecting radio signals from terrestrial stations, which include those broadcasted by commercial FM and TV stations. For this research, 3 sites are identified as candidates but only the best will ultimately be utilized to do the research. The selection criterion depends on the radio frequency interference (RFI) level and whether they have any free FM frequency from local radio stations. The 3 sites are Jelebu in Negeri Sembilan, Behrang in Perak and Merang in Terengganu. The best site is Behrang and the average floor noise level at this site within the FM frequencies of 88 MHz to 108 MHz is -97.111 dBm. The average number of meteor detections in the span of three days is 48 meteors per day. A number of 50 underdense and 38 overdense meteor trails are detected for the first day.