[meteorite-list] Smoke Trails

[MexicoDoug]

You'd have to look at the specific case and if what you say is 
generally true, here's a few ideas to kick around:

Wind speed.  Planes fly up to about 10 km for a reason; above that wind 
speeds can easily triple.  Bolides leave smoke trails starting around 
70 km altitude downward.  Above 70 km or so it is mainly incandescence 
(a photo-electric process which quenches itself quicker, like lightning 
but is a bit more persistent due to the higher altitude reducing the 
quenching rate since the mean free path is longer.

Particle (size, density, phase).  If the result of fuel combustion is 
light, fine soot and gases and that of a meteor a larger particulate 
mixture with denser individuals ...

Altitude (atmospheric density).  Less air = less suspension effects.  
An object falls faster at higher altitude by a factor of 
sqrt[(do-da)/da)] where do is the density of the object and da is the 
density of the air.  That's basically sqrt(do/da).  So, if the 
atmosphere is 100x denser at 10 km than it is at 50 km, it will fall 
sqrt(100) = 10 X times faster.  Not a good idea to skydive that high!

Kindest wishes
Doug






-----Original Message-----
From: GREG LINDH <geeg48 at msn.com>
To: pshugar <pshugar at messengersfromthecosmos.com>
Cc: meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sat, Nov 5, 2011 12:53 am
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Smoke Trails



   I'm not a scientist, but I think the contrail has more moisture in 
it, and
this could cause it to linger longer than the meteorite trail. Just a 
thought.



  Greg L.





----------------------------------------
> From: pshugar at messengersfromthecosmos.com
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2011 20:41:38 -0700
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Smoke Trails
>
> Why does a jet's contrail last for quite a while,
> yet a meteorite's trail disapears so very quickly?
> Pete Shugar
> IMCA 1733
>
>
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