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Shinsuke Abe, Hajime Yano, Noboru Ebizuka, Masatoshi Sugimoto, Toshihiro Kasuga, Jun-ichi Watanabe, Twin Peaks of the 2002 Leonid Meteor Storm Observed in the Leonid MAC Airborne Mission, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, Volume 55, Issue 3, 25 June 2003, Pages 559–565, https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/55.3.559
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Abstract
During the Leonid MAC 2002 airborne mission, we carried out a wide-field TV observation of the strong activity of the Leonid meteor shower from 03h30m UT through 11h50m UT on 2002 November 19. Two narrow peaks of the storm activities were observed at around 04h03m UT and 10h49m UT, with peak influx rates (|$\mbox{mag} \leq +6.5$| mag|$\leq +6.5$|) of |$1.63 \times 10^{-5} \,\mathrm{km}^{-2} \,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$| and |$1.95 \times 10^{-5} \,\mathrm{km}^{-2} \,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$|, respectively. Even in the full-Moon condition, the activity level of these twin peaks were comparable to that of the storm observed in 2001 over Japan. The first peak activity generated by the 7-revolution-old dust trail (ejection in 1767) was rich in bright meteors, including the fireball-class, compared to the second peak corresponding to the 4-revolution-old dust trail (ejection in 1866). The magnitude distribution indices (|$-2.5 \leq$| mag|$\leq +3.5$|) were |$1.70 \pm 0.10 $| in the first peak (7-rev) and |$2.03 \pm 0.05$| in the second peak (4-rev). The correlation between the observed peaks and several theoretical predictions is discussed.
