A Mathematical Model for Simulating Meteor Showers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new mathematical model and coordinate system for simulating meteor trajectories from any observer location, implemented as a Stellarium plug-in, capable of modeling both meteor showers and sporadic meteors.

Contribution

The paper develops a novel Radiant Coordinate System and a computational model for meteor simulation, integrated into Stellarium for practical visualization.

Findings

Effective simulation of meteor showers using real catalog data

Model accurately represents meteor trajectories from any observer point

Implementation as a Stellarium plug-in enhances usability

Abstract

This paper presents a mathematical model to simulate the trajectory of a meteor as seen by a single observer located anywhere on Earth. Our strategy is to define a new coordinate system, called Radiant Coordinate System, which is centered on the observer and has its z-axis aligned with the radiant. This new coordinate system allows us to describe the meteors' path by applying a reduced number of equations in a simple solution. We also present a computational implementation of this model, which is developed as a new plug-in of Stellarium, a free and open-source planetarium software. Moreover, we show that our model can be used to simulate both meteor showers and sporadic meteors. In particular, meteor showers are simulated using data provided by real catalogs.