Consistency between dynamical modeling and photometrically derived masses of fireballs
Eloy Peña-Asensio, Maria Gritsevich
astro-ph.EP
Submitted: 2026-05-10
Comments: Accepted in Icarus
DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2026.117151
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The gist: We present a three-point inverse solution for reconstructing meteoroid deceleration and mass-loss histories from sparse observations constrained only by the entry, peak-brightness, and terminal
Terminology
Abstract
We present a three-point inverse solution for reconstructing meteoroid deceleration and mass-loss histories from sparse observations constrained only by the entry, peak-brightness, and terminal points. The method combines the alpha - beta analytical formalism with a derivative-free global optimizer and a numerical inversion of the height-velocity relation, enabling the retrieval of physically consistent solutions even when full velocity profiles are unavailable. Applied to the 2017-2018 European Fireball Network (EN) catalog, the approach achieves an 88% convergence rate when fitting only height-velocity pairs, and 63% when terminal and initial masses are also imposed. 52% of mass-constrained solutions (34% overall) yield bulk densities consistent with their PE classes, with higher strength emerging as the primary discriminator among events retaining coherent classifications when only 3 points are used as input data. Rapidly evolving high-energy, high-mass events show the largest incompatibility with the alpha - beta model. The inversion produces a continuous bulk-density distribution spanning about 300-4000 kg, m-3, in contrast to the discrete densities fixed by PE-based categories. The EN fireball dataset is now supplemented with self-consistent alpha and beta estimates.
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