Abstract
AN average meteor releases energy at a rate of 100 megawatts as it is disintegrated in the Earth's upper atmosphere. A portion of this energy is converted into heat and light, and it is possible that energy is also emitted in other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, at high and low radio frequencies. Plasma resonance of the ionized trail and deceleration of electrons and ions, for example, are possible mechanisms for radio emission. Preliminary experiments conducted by Kalashnikov1 in the U.S.S.R. seemed to show that meteors produced radio noise at the lower end of the spectrum, at a frequency of about 1 c./s. His equipment consisted of a search coil, 100 m. in diameter, that was connected to a sensitive moving-coil galvanometer. With this magnetometer a field change of 4 × 10−8 oersted, or 4 × 10−3γ, could be detected, and pulses were obtained simultaneously with the occurrence of a meteor. I have recently repeated the magnetometer experiment, and measurements have also been made at other points in the electromagnetic spectrum, so that meteor noise has been investigated at the frequencies: 1 c./s., 30 Mc./s., 218 Mc./s. and 475 Mc./s.
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References
Kalashnikov, A. G., C.R. Acad. Sci. U.S.S.R., No. 6 (1952).
Aarons, J., and Henissart, M., Nature, 172, 682 (1953).
Hawkins, G. S., J. Geophys. Res. (in the press).
Hawkins, G. S., Astrophys. J. (in the press).
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HAWKINS, G. Radio Noise from Meteors. Nature 181, 1610 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/1811610a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1811610a0
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