Micrometeroid Flight in the Upper Atmosphere: Electron Emission and Charging

Details Micrometeroid Flight in the Upper Atmosphere: Electron Emission and Charging Micrometeroid Flight in the Upper Atmosphere: Electron Emission and Charging

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufmsa41a..05m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #SA41A-05

Physics

0654 Plasmas, 2499 General Or Miscellaneous, 6015 Dust, 6205 Asteroids And Meteoroids

Scientific paper

Solving the simultaneous equations for the continuity of charge, mass, momentum and energy of a micrometeoroid entering the earth's atmosphere, we study its charging, ablation, deceleration and heating along its path. This analysis, which considers different initial entry speeds and angles, builds on an earlier study (G. Sorasio, D. A. Mendis and M. Rosenberg, 2001, Planet. Space Sci., 49, 1257) where only normal entry at a single speed was considered, while emphasizing the important role of thermionic emission of electrons from the frictionally heated micrometeoroid. While the main conclusions are qualitatively similar, the quantitative differences are significant. As before the micrometeoroid can change its charge polarity during flight and the altitude range of meteoric ionization is larger than in the case when ionization is due only to collisions between sublimating molecules and background atmospheric molecules. However, the present study shows that this range becomes larger, with earlier onset of ionization, as the initial entry speed becomes larger and the initial entry angle becomes smaller. Interestingly we also find that the residual mass of the ablated micrometeoroid is a minimum at a certain critical angle of entry, for a given initial speed. The implications of this study for atmospheric ionization by different meteor streams, as well as for radar observations of meteors (e.g., the head and trail echoes) will be discussed. The implications of this study for atmospheric ionization by different meteor streams, as well as for radar observations of meteors (e.g., the head and trail echoes) will be discussed.

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