The meteor radar detection system at Brough Astronomy is based on a Raspberry Pi and low cost USB Software-Defined Radio dongle. Despite it's small size, it is able to receive signals and distinguish between meteor echoes and the erroneous signals from satellites such as Elon Musk's "Starlink" constellation.
Over-dense echoes, caused by meteors with a mass that is greater than 1 mg, result in an ionised trail that persists over several seconds and occur in a daily peak associated with the earth passing through the meteor stream.
Whilst the rapidly decaying under-dense echoes, caused by the background of meteors with a mass less that 1 mg, appear to follow a sinusoidal pattern that is caused by the Earth's rotation into the meteor stream.
These graphs explains why meteor showers are best observed in the early morning before sunrise when the population is greatest - for more information see the presentation that was given to group's monthly meeting.
