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Optical observations of water in Leonid meteor trails
Author(s) -
PellinenWannberg Asta,
Murad Edmond,
Gustavsson Björn,
Brändström Urban,
Enell CarlFredrik,
Roth Christopher,
Williams Iwan P.,
Steen Åke
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2003gl018785
Subject(s) - meteoroid , meteor (satellite) , altitude (triangle) , physics , water ice , comet , geology , atmospheric sciences , astronomy , astrobiology , astrophysics , geometry , mathematics
Two simultaneous filtered images (589 and 423 nm) of a meteor trail were recorded during the 2002 Leonid storm. The first image shows Na atoms and the second Ca and Fe atoms and signals at altitudes much higher than can give rise to ablation of metals, in agreement with other observations of high altitude visible trails [ Spurný et al. , 2000a; Spurný et al. , 2000b]. Ablation models [ McNeil et al. , 1998] and analysis of the history of the 2002 Leonid meteoroids [ McNaught and Asher , 1999] support the conclusion that the high altitude emissions are due to H 2 O + and H α,β,γ formed through the decomposition in the hyperthermal collision between H 2 O from meteoroid ice [ Kresák , 1973] and atmospheric N 2 [ Dressler et al. , 1992].