HIGH SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION OPTICAL SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE OF METEOROID FRAGMENTATION

A digital image intensified CCD camera with an electronically gated image intensifier was used to produce very short duration images of meteors. The observational system employed a 0.40 m F/4.5 Newtonian telescope to obtain high spatial resolution. A second intensified CCD camera was used to yield height information using parallax. At a typical meteor height one pixel (for the vertically oriented system) corresponded to about 1.1 m. A sampling of 59 mainly sporadic meteors was analyzed. There is clear variability from meteor to meteor, with many meteors (nearly 50%) showing only a small amount of wake, while some meteors (approximately 20%) have the off segments completely filled in.     

The fall of the Peekskill meteorite: Video observations,atmospheric path,fragmentation record and orbit.

A general overview of the events surrounding the fall of the Peekskill meteorite is presented.     

Comment on “superrotation of upper atmosphere by global deposition of meteoroids”: Planet. space sci.22, 559 (1974)

The meteoric influx explanation of superrotation (Mitra, 1974) is re-examined. It is shown that the excess orbital angular momentum of the meteoroids is transferred to the region below about 110 km, and thus can probably not account for the superrotation of the 150–400 km atmospheric layer.