The relative activity of the 2001 Leonid storm peaks and implications for the 2002 return Original Research Article

On November 18, 2001, the Earth crossed more than one dust trail of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, with meteoroid stream centers located just inside and outside of Earth’s orbit. The relative flux intensity of the resulting meteor storm peaks can be used as a sensitive measure of the relative position of the dust trails. Unfortunately, the precise value of the magnitude distribution index plays a large role in how both storms were perceived by different video cameras. That is, the different observing conditions of each instrument require making corrections to the relative flux. Through the analysis of video observations of both airborne and ground-based observations and the use of a meteor simulation tool, we attempt to estimate the magnitude distribution index and the relative peak intensity of the Leonid meteor storms from 2001. This in turn is used to provide insight into the predictive capabilities of the various dust trail models.