Variation of sporadic meteor activity during the 23. cycle of solar activity

Analyses of the influence of solar activity on sporadic meteor counts based on visual and radar meteor observations present rather contradictory results, indicating a possible variation of the sporadic meteor counts with a solar activity, with the maximum in observed meteor rates occurring from zero up to about five years after the solar activity maximum. With this perspective, in the present paper observations of the sporadic meteor background, obtained by a forward-scatter radio system for meteor observation operating along the Bologna (Italy)-Modra (Slovakia) baseline in 1996-2007, are analysed and discussed. The activity curves of all echoes and their variations indicate a correlation with solar activity in the 23. solar cycle represented by the solar relative number R (corr. coef. 0.71), as well as with the solar coronal index C1 (corr. coef. 0.73). The mass distribution exponent s and its variations (with corr. coef. against R and C1, 0.12 and 0.25, respectively) does not show a correlation consistent with solar activity and, from the viewpoint of s, suggest the existence of a relatively stable population of sporadic background meteoroids in the surroundings of the Earth's orbit during the investigated period.