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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 27, NO. 13, PAGES 1811–1814, 2000

First Observations of Long-Lived Meteor Trains with Resonance Lidar and Other Optical Instruments

M. C. Kelley

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY


C. Gardner

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, CSRL, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL


J. Drummond

Air Force Research Laboratory/Directed Energy Directorate, Kirtland AFB, NM


T. Armstrong

Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM


A. Liu

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, CSRL, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL


X. Chu

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, CSRL, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL


G. Papen

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, CSRL, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL


C. Kruschwitz

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY


P. Loughmiller

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY


B. Grime

Dept. of Electrical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA


J. Engelman

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY


Abstract

In November 1998 the earth passed through a maximum in the cometary material responsible for the yearly Leonids meteor shower. The meteor storm event produced numerous examples of long-lived chemiluminescent trails—visible to the naked eye—over New Mexico, where a major observation campaign was centered. One trail was detected for over an hour with a CCD camera employing a narrow sodium filter, and many others were observed for over ten minutes each. For the first time, sodium densities in such trails were measured while also being imaged in sodium light. We have verified one source of long-lived light emissions—a sodium-catalyzed reaction involving ozone—but it is far too weak to explain the visibility of such trails. In addition, we present a new explanation for the cylindrical shell appearance long reported for chemiluminescent trails and show that ozone depletion by chemical processes is a possible explanation for this phenomenon.

Received 25 October 1999; accepted 17 February 2000.

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Citation: Kelley, M. C., et al. (2000), First Observations of Long-Lived Meteor Trains with Resonance Lidar and Other Optical Instruments, Geophys. Res. Lett., 27(13), 1811–1814.