The decay of luminosity in the trains of moderately bright meteors

The emission of light arising from the dissociative recombination with electrons of meteoric ions that have been oxidized by ozone is discussed and it is shown that this radiation has the characteristics necessary to explain the main features of luminosity observed below ～95 km in the trains of meteors in the approximate magnitude range 0 to ?5, namely: (i) that most enduring luminosity is obtained from heights between ～85 and ～95 km, (ii) that in this region the luminosity decays with time t according to (1 + Kt)^?2 (rather than in an exponential fashion) with a rate constant K varying from ～0.3 s^?1 near 90km to ～3s^?1 below 85km and (iii) that the spectrum contains mainly lines characteristic of neutral calcium, iron and magnesium.