We used the FM radio system described on our main page. The 2002 Leonid meteor shower showed significant activity at its peak, much higher than the background rate of sporadic meteors of 3 - 5 meteors per hour. The observed rates were smaller than the predicted rates. The activity rates were determined by the same computer program that was used for the previous studies. It counts as meteor signals all peaks with an initial rise greater than 20% of the background in one second. This criterion prevents noise signals from being counted as meteors, but it probably leads to an under-count. See the main page for more details.

2002 Leonid Data

The following are the raw data for the 2002 Leonids around the peak. Each strip is a 15 minute trace.

Leonids for the period 11/19/02 4:00 AM through 5:00 AM EST

Leonids for the period 11/19/02 5:00 AM through 6:00 AM EST

Leonids for the period 11/19/02 6:00 AM through 7:00 AM EST

For comparison, here is the raw data 24 hours after the peak (11/20/02 5:00 AM through 6:00 AM EST).

Rates for 2002 Leonids

The following graphs show the meteor count rates per hour we measured for the 2002 Leonids. These rates were determined by a computer program that counted all peaks that climbed at least 20% above the background level in one second. The graph shows the rates observed from midnight EST 11/16/02 through midnight 11/21/02.

Summary

The peak rate we observed for the 2002 Leonid meteor shower was 47 meteors per hour. The peak occurred between 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM EST on November 19, 2002.

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Comments and technical questions can be addressed to Dev Gualtieri, Devlin Gualtieri, at Honeywell Laboratory, Morristown, NJ.