Novel Near-Infrared Spectra of a Leonid Meteor

Extending the spectroscopic information on ablating meteors to both shorter and longer wavelengths has been one goal of recent efforts in the NASA and USAF sponsored Leonid Multi-Instrument Campaigns. The near infrared (NIR) emission range is difficult to observe from the ground mainly due to enhanced water vapor absorption. This spectral region is also hampered by the bright mesospheric OH airglow emission which often exhibited marked structure associated with the passage of gravity waves and tides. As part of the Leonids-2002 airborne campaign we experimented with a slit-less spectrograph consisting of an InGaAs camera and transmission grating and obtained novel information on the NIR spectrum of a Leonid meteor in the 1.00-1.65 micron wavelength range. The spectrum shows several bright features which appear to be due to oxygen and nitrogen emissions as well as a continuum emission that appears to peak at shorter wavelengths. A description the meteor measurements together with the results of our initial spectroscopic analysis will be presented.