Enhanced activity of the Southern Taurids in 2005 and 2015

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of Polish Fireball Network (PFN) observations\nof enhanced activity of the Southern Taurid meteor shower in 2005 and 2015. In\n2005, between October 20 and November 10, seven stations of PFN determined 107\naccurate orbits with 37 of them belonging to the Southern Taurid shower. In the\nsame period of 2015, 25 stations of PFN recorded 719 accurate orbits with 215\norbits of the Southern Taurids. Both maxima were rich in fireballs which\naccounted to 17% of all observed Taurids. The whole sample of Taurid fireballs\nis quite uniform in the sense of starting and terminal heights of the\ntrajectory. On the other hand a clear decreasing trend in geocentric velocity\nwith increasing solar longitude was observed.\n Orbital parameters of observed Southern Taurids were compared to orbital\nelements of Near Earth Objects (NEO) from the NEODYS-2 database. Using the\nDrummond criterion $D'$ with threshold as low as 0.06, we found over 100\nfireballs strikingly similar to the orbit of asteroid 2015 TX24. Several dozens\nof Southern Taurids have orbits similar to three other asteroids, namely: 2005\nTF50, 2005 UR and 2010 TU149. All mentioned NEOs have orbital periods very\nclose to the 7:2 resonance with Jupiter's orbit. It confirms a theory of a\n"resonant meteoroid swarm" within the Taurid complex that predicts that in\nspecific years, the Earth is hit by a greater number of meteoroids capable of\nproducing fireballs.\n