Deceleration of a neutral gas emission in the rarefied atmosphere
Abstract
The direct statistical simulation method is used to investigate the deceleration of a gaseous cloud in the rarefied atmosphere (i.e., the upper atmosphere of the earth). Distributions of temperature, mean velocity, and concentration of the particles in the cloud and in the decelerating medium are determined for various emission conditions. It is shown that the deceleration length is determined by the effective mean free path length lamba(eff) and amounts to 2-2.5 lambda(eff) for a gas ejection velocity of 8 km/s under specific conditions on the emission mass.
- Publication:
-
Geomagnetism and Aeronomy
- Pub Date:
- August 1991
- Bibcode:
- 1991Ge&Ae..31..678M
- Keywords:
-
- Exhaust Clouds;
- Molecular Clouds;
- Neutral Gases;
- Rarefied Gases;
- Upper Atmosphere;
- Atmospheric Composition;
- Atmospheric Heating;
- Particle Collisions;
- Temperature Distribution