ICY SCIENCE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE VOL 1 ISSUE 1

101You will travel down winding fjords, past puffins and killerwhales on their way to the Lofoten islands. There will beoutdoor activities with astronaut Ken Ham to increase yourleadership and team-building skills, with kayaking, rafting andhiking to name but a few. You’ll be spending some of yournights in Rorbu, traditionally used as fishermen’s cabins butnow a cosy retreat for Arctic holidaymakers.One of the most attractive features of the trip is the oppor- ages, as is meeting a real NASA astronaut.tunity to view the majestic Aurora Borealis, more popularly The Astronaut Leadership Experience is offer-known as the Northern Lights. The Northern Light Belt hits ing a rare opportunity to achieve what manyNorway in Lofoten, and there is no other place on earth where dream of. Visit HERE for more details on theyou will stand a better chance of witnessing the lights. Arctic ALE and other upcoming ISSET events.RIGHT: The Aurora Borealis over Tromso, Norway.The Aurora Borealis is one of the natural world’s most astonish-ing phenomena, a mesmerising curtain of light draped acrossthe Arctic sky. It often appears in a striking green or light rosecolour, but in periods of extreme activity, can change to yellowor red. The Aurora is caused by streams of charged particlesfrom the sun, directed by the earth’s magnetic field towardsthe Polar Regions. The interaction between the charged par-ticles into the nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the atmospherereleases the energy creating the visible aurora.Witnessing the Aurora is a lifetime ambition for people of allICY SCIENCE | WINTER 2013- 2014

102Reign of the Radio Leoinid meteorcapture.Niether the full Moon or clouds could prevent meteor radio capture during the recent Leonid Peak meteorshower. On November 17th at my local Sherwood observatory Nottinghmshire the recent installation ofa new dedicated meteor system required further radio calibration and software tests. This 2013 leonidmeteor shower and Earth’s rendevous with Comet tuttle debri provided an ideal window for this task.ICY SCIENCE | WINTER 2013- 2014

103 The chosen transmitters are the Belgium dourbes beacon (BRAMS)operating at 49.970 MHz and another dedicated meteor radar transmitter based at Juliusruh in Germany (Institute Atomospheric Physics) oper- ating at 53.500 MHz. Meteor radio signature traces depict high frequency ranges shown in yellow before rapidly dropping to the radar carrier frequency in blue as the meteoroid decelerates in the atmosphere. The ionisation increases in this phase that inturn strengthens the radio signal as it burns up. The captured Leonid radio signatures trace examples given below portray the event over time of the meteors furious entry phase in the upper Earth atmosphere approximatley 90 km high.Plasma ionisation occures both at the meteor head and tail. This allows reflection of radio waves by a suit-able radio transmitter to be captured by a radio receiver. Using a computer or laptop the meteor radio spec-trograms can be recorded and then anaylised by suitabe radio software (Spectrum Labs). This ineffect pre-serves the meteroids dynamic path and stages of its disintergration and demise through the upper atmo-sphere that effect its radio reflection cababilities. The received signal strength,and deviation of the tuned ICY SCIENCE | WINTER 2013- 2014



105 DATA : 03:0am.Michael Knowles.Sherwood Observatory.Nottinghamshire. ICY SCIENCE | WINTER 2013- 2014