[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: (meteorobs) Re: Leonids meteor shower
Lew Gramer wrote:
> And one final point, Victor: you did not read the news releases closely enough
> (or with sufficient knowledge)... The danger to artificial satellites from any
> putative Leonid storm is NOT due to a "bombardment of debris": rather, it is
> due to the possibility of extremely high levels of ionized particles in the
> Earth's upper atmosphere that might occur during a storm.
I would like to point out that the damages from a meteoroid impact are
of several types, such as the pure mechanical damage, the plasma
production, and electromagnetic interferences. During last years several
authors underlined that the catastrophic impact is a rare event, but
high meteoroids fluxes can weaken the satellite structures. Moreover,
McDonnell et al. (University of Kent) showed that the plasma production
is more dangerous than the pure mechanical impact. During a
hypervelocity impact, the meteoroid and part of satellite material
vaporize and plasma is produced. The free electric charge of the plasma
can be injected into electronic circuits, making a short-circuit.
If you are interested, I have written a review paper on this argument
(with several related references) and you can freely download it from
xxx Eprint server (http://xxx.lanldot gov/), that has mirrors all over the
world. The preprint has number: physics/9804026, but you can also read
the preprint physics/9804027.
Greetings,
Luigi Foschini
--
dr. Luigi Foschini
CNR - FISBAT Institute
Via Gobetti 101, I-40129 Bologna (Italy)
tel. +39 51 639.9620/9622; fax +39 51 639.9654
E-mail: L.Foschini@fisbat.bo.cnrdot it
WWW: http://www.fisbat.bo.cnrdot it/homepp/dinamica/foschini.html
References: