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Re: (meteorobs) Perseid & Leonid clouds
> Several hours before the great Leonid storm, people saw a faint glow
> in the constellation of Leo.
> [snip]
> been observed on any other occasions? (Leonids 1998??) And what is
> the approximate number of particles per cubic meter (kilometer??).
It's probably a mistake for me to reply without checking the figures,
but he goes...
It depends on what your particle size limit is. Even for a storm like
the 1966 Leonids, the density of meteoroids producing visual meteors was
of the order of 1 per 5x5x5 km cube. Sorry I don't have more exact
figures to hand and there is debate on what the peak ZHR was anyway, but
you get the idea. The space density is low. Now the glow has a
contribution from micrometeoroids (equivalent to the telescopic
meteors). Let's suppose the stream is rich in smaller particles, r=2.8
Six magnitudes fainter gives us about a fifth the linear size of box
on average containing a meteoroid, i.e. 1 particle in a 1x1x1 km cube
on average.
Malcolm
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