The Flux of Meteors and Micrometeoroids in the Neighborhood of the Earth

This report briefly presents the results to date of two continuing programs, viz., the measurements of radio meteor flux at Havana, Illinois, and the measurement of micrometeoroid flux on the OGO 2 satellite. The average cumulative radio meteor influx as a function of mass is given by log I = -14.0 - 1.05 log m∞, where I is the influx in meteors per square meter per second, and m∞, is the meteor mass in grams. No more than two impacts of micrometeoroids of mass greater than 10 ^-12 g have been recorded by the OGO 2 satellite experiment. This fact suggests that the average cumulative flux of such particles during the period October 1965 through March 1966 is less than 3 ×10^-2 particles m^-2 sec-¹ (2 πster)^-1. From these and other results it appears that there is no radical departure from the constant mass per magnitude distribution of meteoric material in the neighborhood of the earth.