The total mass flux of meteoroids into the Earth's upper atmosphere
Abstract
Meteoroids entering the Earth's upper atmosphere deposit there meteoritic matter at a considerable rate. This deposition process has important consequences for the aeronomy of the upper mesosphere and lower ionosphere. Therefore, it seems important to quantify the total mass flux of meteoroids entering the Earth's upper atmosphere. In the past, numerous estimates for this flux have been given. Yet, the uncertainty about its true value remains unsatisfactorily large for e.g. modelers of processes which lead to the formation of noctilucent clouds or the metal atom layers at mesopause altitudes. This paper presents a critical evaluation of three past approaches to arrive at a value for this total mass flux. This evaluation leads the author to suggest that the experiment of Love and Brownlee [1993] has given us the best value so far.
- Publication:
-
17th ESA Symposium on European Rocket and Balloon Programmes and Related Research
- Pub Date:
- August 2005
- Bibcode:
- 2005ESASP.590...33V
- Keywords:
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- Earth Atmosphere;
- Meteoroids