Do more meteorites fall at low latitudes?
Do more, or less, meteorites fall at different latitudes? i.e. do more fall at the equator than at the poles? When I was in Vietnam, I seemed to see many more “shooting stars” than anywhere else I have lived (Alaska to Australia). I did some reading, and I found that meteor rates do vary by a number of effects, some of which are dependent on latitude. The first is a daily effect. There are more meteorites in the morning than in the evening, because the morning hemisphere is the part that leads the Earth in its orbit (so, it is ‘running into’ the meteoroids) and the evening hemisphere is the trailing one. That’s why meteor showers are at their best after midnight. The second is seasonal, due to the fact that meteoroids come from ‘streams’ of material. The strongest produce distinct meteor showers, but some of the weaker ones all added together mean there’s an uneven ‘background’ of sporadic meteors. This also changes by latitude, since different latitudes would sample different parts of
