Prediction of cometary OH maser emission in 1.6 GHz frequency band based on optical brightness

Abstract

Cometary OH maser emission evaluation was carried out to identify potentially bright comets for which OH maser emission were detectable in 1.6 GHz frequency range using Irbene RT-32 radio telescope. The evaluation model was based on the results of more than 3320 comets observations using data from optical and radio observations. Using the evaluation model, the correlation between optical brightness and radio flux density and correlation between flux density and OH production models was analyzed. In the research a prediction neural network model prototype was created to predict the comet brightness value in optical frequency range, based on the analyzed results from obtained correlation and characteristics of the comet. Based on the prediction model, the comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) was observed in 1.6 GHz frequency band using Irbene RT-32 radio telescope. Spectral analysis using Fourier transform was applied to radio astronomical data from multiple observations related to weak cometary OH maser detection.