Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-qc88w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-20T14:26:49.081Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Recombination in Radar Meteors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Richard B. Southworth
Richard B. Southworth*
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Cambridge, Massachusetts

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Recombination of the Electrons in the ionized column has often been considered (see, for example, Öpik, 1955), but the uncertainties in the atomic and molecular species present and in the rate constants have made it difficult to predict. Furthermore, recombination has not been recognized in the observations, so that it has been judged to be negligible (McKinley, 1961). More recently, however, a relatively high rate constant has been found for dissociative recombination of certain molecular ions. We have now observed recombination at comparable rates in our radar meteor recordings.

References

Davis, J., Greenhow, J. S., and Hall, J. E., 1959. The effect of attachment on radio echo observations of meteors, Proc. Roy. Soc. London, A, 253, 130–139.Google Scholar
Davis, J., and Hall, J. E., 1963. Meteor luminosity and ionization, Proc. Roy. Soc. London, A, 271, 120–128.Google Scholar
Evans, G. C., and Hall, J. E., 1955. Meteor ionizing and luminous efficiencies, in Meteors, edited by Kaiser, T. R., Pergamon Press, New York, 18–22.Google Scholar
Greenhow, J. S., and Hall, J. E., 1960. Diurnal variations of density and scale height in the upper atmosphere, J. Atmos. Terr. Phys., 18, 203–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenhow, J. S., and Neufeld, E. L., 1955. The diffusion of ionized meteor trails in the upper atmosphere, J. Atmos. Terr. Phys., 6, 133–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, T. R., 1955. The interpretation of radio echoes from meteor trails, in Meteors, edited by Kaiser, T. R., Pergamon Press, New York, 55–64.Google Scholar
Manning, L. A., 1958. The initial radius of meteoritic ionization trails, J. Geophys. Res., 63, 181–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mckinley, D. W. R., 1961. Meteor science and engineering, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 309 pp.Google Scholar
Mehr, T. J., and Biondi, M. A., 1969. Electron temperature dependence of recombination of O2 + and N2 + ions with electrons, Phys. Rev., 181, 264–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millman, P. M., and Mckinley, D. W. R., 1956. Meteor echo durations and visual magnitudes, Can. J. Phys., 34, 50–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Öpik, E. J., 1955. Meteors and the upper atmosphere, Irish Astron. J., 3, 165–181.Google Scholar
Öpik, E. J., 1958. Physics of meteor flight in the atmosphere, Interscience Publishers, New York, 174 pp.Google Scholar
Southworth, R. B., 1962. Theoretical Fresnel patterns of radio meteors, Harvard-Smithson. Radio Meteor Proj. Res. Rept. No. 14, 60 pp.Google Scholar
Southworth, R. B., 1967. Space density of radio meteors, in The Zodiacal Light and the Interplanetary Medium, edited by Weinberg, J. L., NASA SP-150, Supt. of Documents, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, 179–188; also in Smithson. Astrophys. Obs. Spec. Rept. No. 239, 75–98.Google Scholar
Verniani, Franco, and Hawkins, G. S., 1964. On the ionizing efficiency of meteors, Astrophys. J., 140, 1590–1600.Google Scholar