Meteor Radar Observations

The Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR)

Basic Overview

The CMOR system consists of three identical radar systems slaved together to transmit and receive simultaneously.

The basic technical details of the system are:

Location:                                  43.264N, 80.772W
Frequencies:                            17.45, 29.85, and 38.15 MHz

RX Noise Levels:                      -98, -109, -113 dBm
Peak Power:                             6 kW (per frequency)
P.R.F.:                                      532 pps
Sampling Rate:                        42 ksps (per channel) 
Range Increment:                    3 kms
Bandwidth:                               28 kHz
Pulse Length:                           75 µs
Remote Link Frequency:        450 MHz

The resulting physical limits of meteor echo detection with CMOR are:

Equivalent Meteor Magnitude Limit:                            +8
Minimum Detectable Mass (velocity dependent):      10^-5 g
Minimum Detectable Meteroid size:                            0.1 mm
Height Range:                                                              70-120 km
Range Interval:                                                            15-255 km
Effective Atmospheric Collecting Area:                      100-300 km² (per hour)

The radars make use of a five receiver interferometer - phase differences between these receive antennae from one meteor echo uniquely isolate the scattering point in the sky.

Research Activities