[meteorite-list] What makes a meteor glow?

[Göran Axelsson]

There exists a lot of spectras of meteors. Data have been recorded by 
satellite and high altitude air crafts. I found this article after 20s 
of searching.

Too bad I can't get to the full article... it costs $37.95.

:-(

/Göran


http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004AdSpR..33.1455C

Leonid meteor spectrum from 110 to 860 nm

References and further reading may be available for this article. To 
view references and further reading you must purchase this article.

J. F. CarbaryCorresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The 
Corresponding Author, D. Morrison, G. J. Romick1 and J. -H. Yee

Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD 20723, USA
Received 29 July 2002;
revised 2 October 2002.
Available online 4 February 2003.

Abstract

During the Leonid meteor shower on 18 November 1999, the five 
spectrographic imagers onboard the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) 
satellite recorded the first complete meteor spectra from 110 to 860 nm. 
The observation occurred at 00:23:36.2 UT, at which time the satellite 
was pointed at a tangent altitude of 100 km over 37.2°N and 78.2°E. The 
spectrograph slits were oriented approximately parallel to the horizon 
at a tangent altitude of 100 km, and the meteor passed approximately 
perpendicular through the slits’ fields of view. All five spectrographic 
imagers observed the passage of a bright object (mv < −2.8 at 100 km) 
and each recorded several frames of data. In the visible, common meteor 
emissions were observed from iron, sodium, and oxygen. However, the 
ultraviolet spectrum displayed a wealth of more intense features, some 
of which actually caused saturation in the spectrographs. The most 
intense features appeared between 220 and 300 nm and are attributed to 
neutral and singly ionized iron and ionized magnesium. Some unknown 
emissions, possibly from an unidentified molecular species such as iron 
oxide, appear between 180 and 220 nm. In the far ultraviolet from 110 to 
130 nm, oxygen and nitrogen features appear in the spectrum, with some 
features from ionized iron and magnesium. In particular, the FUV 
spectrum showed an intense emission from hydrogen Lyman alpha and a much 
weaker emission from what appeared to be neutral carbon. The atmospheric 
emissions can be associated with the heating within the meteor shock, 
while the metallic emissions originate from the fireball of the meteor 
proper. The ultraviolet emissions were much stronger than those in the 
visible and near-infrared parts of the spectrum. The energy of emissions 
in the ultraviolet (110 < λ < 337 nm) exceeded the energy of the visible 
(337 < λ < 650 nm) by a factor of at least 5.



Mexicodoug wrote:
> Bob wrote:
> "how much an incoming meteor's light is due to heating of the material 
> itself versus the recombination of ionized atoms "
>
> Hi Bob, List,

... snip 8< ....

> What would be most interesting would be the posting of a total light 
> spectrum of a meteoroid that was incredibly imaged with the discrete 
> transition lines labeled for the popular ionic transitions and the 
> background black body sketched together in the same graph. Perhaps the 
> exact answer in such a given case to Bob's question lies in the 
> comparison of the area under the curve (lines vs. black body) of such 
> a spectrum assuming it exists...
>
> Kindest wishes,
> Doug