We present results and analysis of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations of electromagnetic waves scattering off meteor head plasma using an analytical model and a simulation-derived model of the head plasma distribution. The analytical model was developed by (Dimant & Oppenheim, 2017b, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA023963) and the simulation-derived model is based on particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations presented in (Sugar et al., 2019, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JA026434). Both of these head plasma distribution models show the meteor head plasma is significantly different than the spherically symmetric distributions used in previous studies of meteor head plasma. We use the FDTD simulation results to fit a power law model that relates the meteoroid ablation rate to the head echo radar cross section (RCS), and show that the RCS of plasma distributions derived from the Dimant-Oppenheim analytical model and the PIC simulations agree to within 4 dBsm. The power law model yields more accurate meteoroid mass estimates than previous methods based on spherically symmetric plasma distributions.

中文翻译：

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新流星头等离子体分布模型的仿真衍生雷达截面

我们使用分析模型和头部等离子体分布的模拟衍生模型，展示了从流星头部等离子体散射的电磁波的有限差分时域 (FDTD) 模拟的结果和分析。分析模型由 (Dimant & Oppenheim, 2017b, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA023963) 开发，模拟衍生模型基于 (Sugar et al. , 2019, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JA026434)。这两种头部等离子体分布模型都表明，流星头部等离子体与之前流星头部等离子体研究中使用的球对称分布有显着不同。我们使用 FDTD 模拟结果来拟合幂律模型，该模型将流星体消融率与头部回波雷达截面 (RCS) 相关联，并表明源自 Dimant-Oppenheim 分析模型和 PIC 模拟的等离子体分布的 RCS 一致在 4 dBsm 以内。幂律模型比以前基于球对称等离子体分布的方法产生更准确的流星体质量估计。