THE BOLOGNA-LECCE FORWARD SCATTER RADAR EXPERIMENT - PRELIMINARY-RESULTS

Observational results of meteor trails in 1992 as obtained by using a forward scatter (FS) bistatic radar over the Bologna-Lecce baseline (a bout 700 km) in Italy are presented in terms of peak signal amplitude- rate dependence. The distribution of energy reflected by meteor trails is shown to be correlated with the electron line density q, and is di fferent for underdense and overdense echoes. It is pointed out that in the cumulative distribution function of meteor trails vs peak signal amplitudes, the number of underdense echoes decreases with the increas ing signal more rapidly than predicted, whereas the trend is opposite for overdense echoes with a minor decrease when the signal increases. By comparing sets of observations and specified theoretical distributi ons and using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) procedure, a lognormal (and /or Gaussian) model is proposed in order to provide a better fit to tr ends of meteor trails for values of q greater than or equal to 10(13) el m(-1). The distribution of the cumulative echo number vs the energy reflected from meteor trails in December Geminids exhibits the typica l trend of particles more massive in comparison to particles of the ot her streams. The present FS observations of meteor showers indicate th at the transition region where contributions from both overdense and u nderdense are important, extends over a wide amplitude range.