Meteors in the Earth's Atmosphere
Meteoroids and Cosmic Dust and their Interactions with the Earth's Upper Atmosphere

A comprehensive overview of the extraterrestrial matter that falls to Earth from space.

Edmond Murad (Edited by), Iwan P. Williams (Edited by)

9780521804318, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 September 2002

332 pages, 89 b/w illus. 3 colour illus. 41 tables
25.5 x 18.1 x 2.2 cm, 0.858 kg

A huge amount of extraterrestrial matter enters the Earth's atmosphere every year and eventually settles on the ground. The two main sources of this matter are cosmic dust and meteoroid streams. Meteorites form only a very small fraction of the total mass that is captured by the Earth's atmosphere. Most of the matter is in the form of very fine dust particles. Because of the temperatures reached during entry, a large proportion of these particles evaporate at high altitudes, giving rise to radar signatures, and to the visual phenomenon of shooting stars. This book integrates astronomical observations and theories with geophysical studies, presenting a comprehensive overview of the extraterrestrial matter that falls to Earth from space. Meteoroids are the main topic of the book, although cosmic dust, interplanetary matter and meteorites are also discussed. This work will be of great value to researchers involved in the study of meteor phenomena.

1. Introduction Iwan Williams and Edmond Murad
2. The evolution of meteoroid streams Iwan Williams
3. Space dust measurements Eberhard Grun, Valeri Dikarev, Harald Kruger and Markus Landgraf
4. Extraterrestrial dust in the near-Earth environment George Flynn
5. Detection and analysis procedures for visual photographic and image intensified CCD meteor observations Robert Hawkes
6. Radar observations W. Jack Baggaley
7. Meteor trails as observed by Lidar Ulf von Zahn, J. Hoffner and William McNeil
8. In situ measurements of meteoritic ions Joseph Grebowsky and Arthur Aikin
9. Collected extraterrestrial materials: interplanetary dust particles, micrometeorites, meteorites, and meteoritic dust Frans Rietmeijer
10. Meteoroid impacts on spacecraft
Luigi Foschini
11. Models of meteoritic metals in the atmosphere William McNeil, Edmond Murad and John Plane
12. Laboratory studies of meteoritic metal chemistry John Plane
13. Summary and future outlook Edmond Murad and Iwan Williams.

Subject Areas: Geophysics [PHVG], Solar system: the Sun & planets [PGS]