dc.contributor.author |
Jenniskens, P |
|
dc.contributor.author |
Tedesco, Ed |
|
dc.contributor.author |
Murthy, J |
|
dc.contributor.author |
Laux, C. O |
|
dc.contributor.author |
Price, S |
|
dc.date.accessioned |
2012-01-18T14:13:55Z |
|
dc.date.available |
2012-01-18T14:13:55Z |
|
dc.date.issued |
2002-08 |
|
dc.identifier.citation |
Meteoritics & Planetary Science, Vol. 37, No. 8, pp. 1071-1078 |
en |
dc.identifier.uri |
http://hdl.handle.net/2248/5662 |
|
dc.description.abstract |
We used the ultraviolet to visible spectrometers onboard the midcourse space experiment to obtain the first ultraviolet spectral measurements of a bright meteor during the 1997 Leonid shower. The meteor was most likely a Leonid with a brightness of about -2 magnitude at 100 km altitude. In the region between 251 and 310 nm, the two strongest emission lines are from neutral and ionized magnesium. Ionized Ca lines, indicative of a hot T ?10 000 K plasma, are not detected. The Mg and Mg + line intensity ratio alone does not yield the ionization temperature, which can be determined only by assuming the electron density. A typical air plasma temperature of T = 4400 K would imply a very high electron density: ne = 2.2 x 10-18 m-3 , but at chondritic abundances of Fe/Mg and Si/Mg ~ 1. For a more reasonable local-thermodynamic-equilibrium (LTE) air plasma electron density, the Mg and Mg + line ratio implies a less than chondritic Fe/Mg = 0.06 abundance ratio and a cool non-LTE T = 2830 K ionization temperature for the ablation vapor plasma. The present observations do not permit a choice between these alternatives. The new data provide also the first spectral confirmation of the presence of molecular OH and NO emission in meteor spectra. |
en |
dc.language.iso |
en |
en |
dc.publisher |
Wiley |
en |
dc.relation.uri |
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2002M%26PS...37.1071J |
en |
dc.title |
Spaceborne ultraviolet 251-384 nm spectroscopy of a meteor during the 1997 Leonid shower |
en |
dc.type |
Article |
en |