The leonid meteor swarm in 2000-2002

Abstract

The observations of comet Tempel-Tuttle during its present apparition in 1997-1998 allowed the astronomers to improve its orbital elements. The simulation of a meteoroid swarm on the basis of the new orbital elements of this comet for 14 perihelion passages from 1533 to 1965 gives a clear picture of the positions of meteoric particles in the Earth's neighborhood. Their distribution at the time close to 1999, when the Earth crosses the descending node of the orbit of the comet, is shown on the plots. © 2000 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica".