vmperception: Perception Probabilities of Visual Meteor Magnitudes

In vismeteor: Analysis of Visual Meteor Data

Perception Probabilities of Visual Meteor Magnitudes

Description

Provides the perception probability of visual meteor magnitudes.

Usage

vmperception(m)

Arguments

m	numerical; difference between the limiting magnitude and the meteor magnitude.

Details

The perception probabilities of Koschack R., Rendtel J., 1990b are estimated with the formula

p(m) = \begin{cases} 1.0 - \exp\left(-z(m + 0.5)\right)\ & \text{ if } m > -0.5,\\ 0.0 \ & \text{ otherwise,} \end{cases}

where

z(x) = 0.0037 \, x + 0.0019 \, x^2 + 0.00271 \, x^3 + 0.0009 \, x^4

and m is the difference between the limiting magnitude and the meteor magnitude.

Value

This function returns the visual perception probabilities.

References

Koschack R., Rendtel J., 1990b Determination of spatial number density and mass index from visual meteor observations (II). WGN 18, 119–140.

Examples

# Perception probability of visually estimated meteor of magnitude 3.0
# with a limiting magnitude of 5.6.
vmperception(5.6 - 3.0)

# plot
old_par <- par(mfrow = c(1,1))
plot(
    vmperception,
    -0.5, 8,
    main = paste(
        'perception probability of',
        'visual meteor magnitudes'
    ),
    col = "blue",
    xlab = 'm',
    ylab = 'p'
)

par(old_par)

vismeteor documentation built on Sept. 9, 2025, 5:38 p.m.