METEOR PHENOMENA and BODIES 1. Introduction Solid Particles of The
METEOR PHENOMENA AND BODIES ZDENEKˇ CEPLECHA and JIR͡ BOROVICKAˇ Ondˇrejov Observatory, Astronomical Insitute, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic W. GRAHAM ELFORD Department of Physics and Mathematical Physics, University of Adelaide, Australia DOUGLAS O. REVELLE Los Alamos National Laboratories, U.S.A. ROBERT L. HAWKES Department of Physics, Engineering, and Geology, Mount Allison University, Sackville, Canada VLADIMÍR PORUBCANˇ Astronomical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia MILOŠ ŠIMEK Ondˇrejov Observatory, Astronomical Insitute, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic (Received 31 January, 1998) Abstract. Meteoroids can be observed at collision with the Earth’s atmosphere as meteors. Different methods of observing meteors are presented: besides the traditional counts of individual events, exact methods yield also data on the geometry of the atmospheric trajectory; on the dynamics and ablation of the body in the atmosphere; on radiation; on the spectral distribution of radiation; on ionization; on accompanying sounds; and also data on orbits. Theoretical models of meteoroid interaction with the atmosphere are given and applied to observational data. Attention is paid to radar observations; to spectroscopic observations; to experiments with artificial meteors and to different types of meteor sounds. The proposed composition and structure of meteoroids as well as their orbits link them to meteorites, asteroids and comets. Meteor streams can be observed as meteor showers and storms. The rate of influx of meteoroids of different sizes onto Earth is presented and potential hazards discussed. 1. Introduction Solid particles of the solar system that are large enough produce light during their collisions with the Earth’s atmosphere. The phenomenon is traditionally termed a meteor. This word is also sometimes used for the particle.
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