Radio Meteors-NASA Alabama
Live audio streams from NASA's experimental meteor radar system in Huntsville, AL
Description
Two live MP3 audio streams provide real-time reception of meteor forward scatter signals, allowing listeners to hear radar echoes from meteoroid disintegration. The system operates on 67.25 MHz, utilizing an Icom PCR-1000 receiver with a 6-element Yagi antenna pointed skyward. This setup detects reflections from ionized meteor trails created at altitudes of 80 to 130 km, using distant Channel 4 TV transmitters in the southeastern USA as signal sources.
Scientists Rob Suggs, Bill Cooke, and Jeff Anderson of the Marshall Space Flight Center Engineering Directorate developed this experimental radar to monitor near-Earth meteoroid activity. A typical day yields about one meteor ping per minute, with significantly higher rates during meteor showers. The optimal listening period is generally around dawn, from 0800 to 1400 UT, due to Earth's orbital motion encountering more space dust on the dawn side.
The system's CW demodulator processes the 67.250 MHz signal, presenting it at approximately 700 Hz with a 3 kHz bandwidth and AGC off, inverting the passband for Doppler shift analysis.