(meteorobs) Meteorobs day and night time meteors

drobnock drobnock at penn.com
Sat Jul 19 09:49:51 EDT 2008


Question for the group.

If it were possible to see a - 6 magnitude fireball with the same
brilliance in the day time as at night,  would the same amount of energy
be needed to ionize the gas around a meteor to be a visual -6
meteor?     Consider that the same fireball in question is viewed both
in the day and  at night. The meteor being viewed  is of the same
composition, speed entering the atmosphere, trajectory, and  mass. The
same fire ball in all factors.

There is  event  known as the "dark effect"  that occurs with certain
inert gasses - neon being one of them is electrically excited. It is
known that a neon glow tube requires less energy to excite the gas in
the tube if the tube is exposed to sun light as being started in the
dark.

Other gases may have similar characteristics.

Consider for the question that most of our atmosphere is made up of
nitrogen(78% by volume) and  oxygen (21% by volume). The remaining 1% of
the atmospheric gases are known as trace gases because they are present
in such small concentrations.  This question is considering that the
most abundant  trace gases are argon (approximately 1% by volume).
Others include  neon, helium, krypton and xenon may exhibit the "dark
effect" when ionized.

Those observing meteors by radar, is there a  quantitative difference in
the density of the trail for night and day time meteors?

Thanks for any comments.

George John Drobnock





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