PF191012 Myszyniec - highest Orionid meteor ever recorded

TL;DR

This paper reports the observation and analysis of the highest-ever recorded Orionid fireball, providing detailed orbital data and insights into its atmospheric behavior and material properties.

Contribution

It presents the precise orbit, atmospheric trajectory, and physical characteristics of the highest Orionid fireball ever observed, based on multi-station data.

Findings

Beginning height of 168.4 km, the highest recorded for a meteor not from Leonids.

Ablation dominated at around 115 km altitude, indicating material properties.

Transition height suggests Orionids have more robust material compared to Leonids.

Abstract

On the night of Oct 18/19, 2012 at 00:23 UT a -14.7 mag Orionid fireball occurred over northeastern Poland. The precise orbit and atmospheric trajectory of the event is presented, based on the data collected by five video and one photographic Polish Fireball Network (PFN) stations. The beginning height of the meteor is 168.4 +\- 0.6 km which makes the PF191012 Myszyniec fireball the highest ever observed, well documented meteor not belonging to the Leonid shower. The ablation became the dominant source of light of the meteor at a height of around 115 km. The thermalization of sputtered particles is suggested to be the source of radiation above that value. The transition height of 115 km is 10-15 km below the transition heights derived for Leonids and it might suggest that the material of Leonids should be more fragile and have probably smaller bulk density than in case of Orionids.