(meteorobs) Meteorobs day and night time meteors

[Chris Peterson]

Figuring a typical meteor temperature of 4500 K, the peak output will be in 
the visible, at 640 nm. You could approximate the temperature measurement by 
looking at the intensity at a couple of wavelengths, say in the red and 
blue, and fitting to a Planck curve. That would be easier than dealing with 
IR measurements, since atmospheric absorption can largely be ignored. Even 
though the thermal output is high, you also have light from narrow emission 
sources, although the lines will show a high level of Doppler broadening. 
That light will effectively contaminate the blackbody light, reducing the 
accuracy of your temperature measurement.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "stange" <stange34 at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 12:50 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Meteorobs day and night time meteors


> Putting aside the visible portions of the spectrum referred to,
>
> Most lab black body sources are temperature controlled precisely for
> specific IR radiation wavelengths & used in infra-red detection systems
> military & domestic research.
>
> Conversely, the wavelength of the IR propogation from a meteor or bolide
> should yield its surface temperature at any point in time of its flight. I
> do not know if those measures are actually used to calculate the very high
> temperatures they arrive at in meteor/bolide articles.
>
> I once worked in an IR systems lab a very long time ago. YCS