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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 27, NO. 13, PAGES 1807–1810, 2000

Characteristics of Fe Ablation Trails Observed During the 1998 Leonid Meteor Shower

Xinzhao Chu

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


Weilin Pan

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


George Papen

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


Chester S. Gardner

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


Gary Swenson

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


Peter Jenniskens

SETI Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, Mail Stop 239-4, Moffett Field, CA


Abstract

Eighteen Fe ablation trails were observed during the 17/18 Nov 1998 Leonid meteor shower with an airborne Fe lidar aboard the NSF/NCAR Electra aircraft over Okinawa. The average altitude of the 18 trails from the high velocity (72 km/s) Leonid meteors, 95.67±0.93 km, is approximately 6.7 km higher than previously observed for slower (∼30 km/s) sporadic meteors. This height difference is consistent with the assumption that meteors ablate when atmospheric drag reaches a critical threshold. The average age of the Fe trails, determined by a diffusion model, is 10.1 min. The youngest ages were observed below 92 km and above 98 km where chemistry and diffusion dominate, respectively. The average abundance of the trails is 10% of the abundance of the background Fe layer. Observations suggest that the 1998 Leonid shower did not have a significant impact on the abundance of the background Fe layer.

Received 19 October 1999; accepted 8 February 2000.

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Citation: Chu, X., W. Pan, G. Papen, C. S. Gardner, G. Swenson, and P. Jenniskens (2000), Characteristics of Fe Ablation Trails Observed During the 1998 Leonid Meteor Shower, Geophys. Res. Lett., 27(13), 1807–1810.