[meteorite-list] What makes a meteor glow?

From: Mexicodoug <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:14:49 -0400
Message-ID: <8CCE5F8015D1E18-212C-21AE_at_webmail-d036.sysops.aol.com>

Nice find G?ran, that is definitely the first half and refreshing to
know ... next I was wishing that along having the correct wavelengths
(the spectrum of a meteoroid with a reasonable S/N ratio and an
encompassing energy range) ... that it is attached to a guru who can
draw us the blackbody curve in it, integrate that energy, and then
deconvolute the emission lines all in the same spectrum ... and compare
both energies for us on a silver platter ;-) Maybe you or someone is up
to it ;-) Do you think that be the sort of analysis would be necessary
to give a quantifiable answer to Bob's question for a specific event?

Kindest wishes
Doug

-----Original Message-----
From: G?ran Axelsson <axelsson at acc.umu.se>
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Tue, Jun 29, 2010 6:33 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] What makes a meteor glow?


There exists a lot of spectras of meteors. Data have been recorded by
satellite and high altitude air crafts. I found this article after 20s
of searching.?
?
Too bad I can't get to the full article... it costs $37.95.?
?
:-(?
?
/G?ran?
?
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004AdSpR..33.1455C?
?
Leonid meteor spectrum from 110 to 860 nm?
?
References and further reading may be available for this article. To
view references and further reading you must purchase this article.?
?
J. F. CarbaryCorresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The
Corresponding Author, D. Morrison, G. J. Romick1 and J. -H. Yee?
?
Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20723,
USA?
Received 29 July 2002;?
revised 2 October 2002.?
Available online 4 February 2003.?
?
Abstract?
?
During the Leonid meteor shower on 18 November 1999, the five
spectrographic imagers onboard the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX)
satellite recorded the first complete meteor spectra from 110 to 860
nm. The observation occurred at 00:23:36.2 UT, at which time the
satellite was pointed at a tangent altitude of 100 km over 37.2?N and
78.2?E. The spectrograph slits were oriented approximately parallel to
the horizon at a tangent altitude of 100 km, and the meteor passed
approximately perpendicular through the slits? fields of view. All five
spectrographic imagers observed the passage of a bright object (mv <
?2.8 at 100 km) and each recorded several frames of data. In the
visible, common meteor emissions were observed from iron, sodium, and
oxygen. However, the ultraviolet spectrum displayed a wealth of more
intense features, some of which actually caused saturation in the
spectrographs. The most intense features appeared between 220 and 300
nm and are attributed to neutral and singly ionized iron and ionized
magnesium. Some unknown emissions, possibly from an unidentified
molecular species such as iron oxide, appear between 180 and 220 nm. In
the far ultraviolet from 110 to 130 nm, oxygen and nitrogen features
appear in the spectrum, with some features from ionized iron and
magnesium. In particular, the FUV spectrum showed an intense emission
 from hydrogen Lyman alpha and a much weaker emission from what appeared
to be neutral carbon. The atmospheric emissions can be associated with
the heating within the meteor shock, while the metallic emissions
originate from the fireball of the meteor proper. The ultraviolet
emissions were much stronger than those in the visible and
near-infrared parts of the spectrum. The energy of emissions in the
ultraviolet (110 < ? < 337 nm) exceeded the energy of the visible (337
< ? < 650 nm) by a factor of at least 5.?
?
?
Mexicodoug wrote:?
> Bob wrote:?
> "how much an incoming meteor's light is due to heating of the
material > itself versus the recombination of ionized atoms "?
>?
> Hi Bob, List,?
?
... snip 8< ....?
?
> What would be most interesting would be the posting of a total light
> spectrum of a meteoroid that was incredibly imaged with the discrete
> transition lines labeled for the popular ionic transitions and the >
background black body sketched together in the same graph. Perhaps the
> exact answer in such a given case to Bob's question lies in the >
comparison of the area under the curve (lines vs. black body) of such >
a spectrum assuming it exists...?
>?
> Kindest wishes,?
> Doug?
?
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Received on Tue 29 Jun 2010 07:14:49 PM PDT