A search for episodic increases in upper atmospheric water vapor as evidence of an extraterrestrial source

Details A search for episodic increases in upper atmospheric water vapor as evidence of an extraterrestrial source A search for episodic increases in upper atmospheric water vapor as evidence of an extraterrestrial source

May 1990

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990wpaf.reptq....b&link_type=abstract

M.S. Thesis Air Force Inst. of Tech., Wright-Patterson AFB, OH.

Mathematics

Spectral Theory

Atmospheric Moisture, Comets, Microwave Radiometers, Signal Detection, Spectral Signatures, Upper Atmosphere, Water Vapor, Aerospace Environments, Brightness Temperature, Data Bases, Microwave Emission, Microwave Spectra, Spectral Theory, Thermal Emission

Scientific paper

This study examines the short-term variability of upper atmospheric water vapor with the intent of examining a proposed extraterrestrial water vapor source. This source would be provided by an influx of the small (12 m in. diameter) comets described by Frank et al. (1986). A ground-base microwave (22.235 GHz) radiometer located at Penn State has been measuring the thermal emission of upper atmospheric water vapor since 1984. Over 22,000 20-minute brightness temperature spectra from the period of Nov. 1984 through Dec. 1988 were analyzed for statistically significant, transient increases of the amounts of water vapor. This signature could indicate the presence of the cometary water vapor source. Individual 20-minute spectra were compared to the local 12-hour mean and variance spectra in a search for this excess signal signature or event. The analysis yielded 111 significant events which could have been caused by the cometary water vapor. The rate of detection (2.9 days between events) compares favorably with what could be expected from the small comet theory (1.8 days/events). This result is also comparable to the 4.1 days/events obtained by Adams (1988) using small subset of this data base. After exploring alternate explanations for the observed phenomena, it is concluded that these results support the existence of the small comet hypothesis.

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