Consistency between dynamical modeling and photometrically derived masses of fireballsOPEN ACCESS
Eloy Peña-Asensio, Maria Gritsevich
Icarus, In Press, Journal Pre-proof, Available online 5 May 2026
“Highlights
- A three-point inversion method reconstructs meteoroid deceleration and mass loss from sparse datasets.
- Application to the EN 2017–2018 catalog yields self-consistent α and β values for 88% of events.
- 34% of EN fireballs yield α–β solutions consistent with photometrically derived masses.
- High radiated energy and large initial mass primarily control inconsistencies between dynamical and photometric estimates.”
“We present a three-point inverse solution for reconstructing meteoroid deceleration and mass-loss histories from sparse observations constrained only by the entry, peak-brightness, and terminal points. The method combines the α–β analytical formalism with a derivative-free global optimizer and a numerical inversion of the height–velocity relation, enabling the retrieval of physically consistent solutions even when full velocity profiles are unavailable. Applied to the 2017–2018 European Fireball Network (EN) catalog, the approach achieves an 88% convergence rate when fitting only height–velocity pairs, and 63% when terminal and initial masses are also imposed. 52% of mass-constrained solutions (34% overall) yield bulk densities consistent with their P E classes, with higher strength emerging as the primary discriminator among events retaining coherent classifications. Rapidly evolving high-energy, high-mass events show the largest incompatibility with the α–β model. The inversion produces a continuous bulk-density distribution spanning ∼300–4000 kg m−3, in contrast to the discrete densities fixed by P E-based categories. The EN fireball dataset is now supplemented with self-consistent α and β estimates.”
