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Radar meteor rates and atmospheric density changes

Abstract

As a way of explaining the evidence linking recorded radar meteor rates with solar activity, it has been suggested that variations of the atmospheric scale height at meteor ablation altitudes, themselves controlled by the Sun, may be responsible. A quantitative examination of a theoretical treatment by Kaiser (personal communication) now shows that the above suggestion is certainly plausible, and details the necessary scale height changes as a function of the meteor mass exponent.

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Ellyett, C., Kennewell, J. Radar meteor rates and atmospheric density changes. Nature 287, 521–522 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/287521a0

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