THE STUDY OF METEOR PHENOMENA, UPPER ATMOSPHERE WINDS AND TURBULENCE AND CHEMILUMINESCENCE IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERES.
Abstract
Seventeen meteoric trains were both photographed and reduced to determine winds in the upper atmosphere. Decay of luminosity has been studied for two trains. Orbits have been determined for 3044 meteors, 413 accurate, 2631 approximate. There is no evidence for hyperbolic orbits, only two meteors appear to have been produced by asteroidal particles, and there is every evidence that nearly all meteors originate from comets. Conclusions from other studies are that particles leave a meteoroid dark and subsequently ablate by vaporization, that the radar meteoric head echo can be caused by ultra-violet photoionization if oxygen has a sufficiently large dissociative recombination coefficient and that nitrogen and oxygen atoms near 108 km above sea level have a very non-uniform distribution. Other topics studied are the luminous efficiency of meteors, the spectra of meteors, and Saturn's rings. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 31, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0616732
Entities
People
- Allan F. Cook
- Fred L. Whipple
- Richard E. Mccrosky
Organizations
- Harvard College Observatory