Feasibility of Fireball Trail Detection Using Ground-Based GPS Receivers

Author

Ian R. Moffett

Date of Award

3-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Engineering Physics

First Advisor

Daniel J. Emmons, PhD

Abstract

The feasibility of using GPS data to detect fireballs is analyzed by first modeling the fireball’s trail diffusion and plasma chemistry to get a resulting ion density profile of the trail over time. The signal perturbation caused by the fireball trail is simulated for a ground receiver using an analytic solution for diffraction from a Gaussian lens. Five cases were modeled with varying initial peak ion densities and altitudes taken from fireball and reentry vehicle data. This paper shows that it is feasible to detect a fireball trail using GPS if the fireball has a sufficiently high initial ion density, above approximately 10¹⁸ m^-3, and occurs at an altitude above approximately 75 km. For the five cases the amplitude scintillation index, S₄, and phase scintillation index, σ_ɸ , values of the signal for the last detectable ion density profile were calculated.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENP-MS-22-M-100

DTIC Accession Number

AD1176807

Recommended Citation

Moffett, Ian R., "Feasibility of Fireball Trail Detection Using Ground-Based GPS Receivers" (2022). Theses and Dissertations. 5468.
https://scholar.afit.edu/etd/5468