Documents / Official release
This NASA file of astronaut scientific debriefing papers from 1962 collects internal Office of Space Sciences material on the science observations made on early Mercury flights. A February 1962 memo from Maurice Dubin asks for more detail on John Glenn's report of luminous particles and the atmospheric horizon layer. A draft memo concludes that the particles were tied to the spacecraft and were not extraterrestrial. The file also holds a Los Alamos letter that attributes the high haze layer to nitrogen peroxide, and notes on Carpenter's airglow observations.
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 This file contains memoranda, correspondence, reports, and other materials relating to contemporary scientific interest in investigating the nature of luminous phenomena reported by astronauts John Glenn and Walter Schirra during spaceflight. This collection includes transcripts from NASA interviews and debriefings with both astronauts regarding those observations. It also contains details relating to scientific observations of atmospheric phenomena, including brief descriptions of luminous particles, experiences while aboard spacecraft, and circa 1955 theoretical analysis of meteoric particles entering the atmosphere. Pages 34-35, 55-56, 57-63, 64-113, and 122-127 feature content relevant to the PURSUE initiative.
“Cooper”51 pages
"Meteors" (A Symposium on Meteor Physics): Special Supplement (Vol. 2) toJ. Atmosph. T err. Phys. (1955) Meteor Ionization in the E-region MAURICE D UBIN Air Force Cambridge Research Center, U.S.A. ABSTRACT The theories of meteoric interaction with the atmosphere h ave been reviewed to determine the total contribution by m eteors to t he ionization content of the E-region. From Herlofson's t heoretical treatment of this interaction, and Watson's distribution of t he size and numbers of meteoric particles entering the atmosphere per day, t h e number of electrons produced at various altitudes in the E-region was computed. These computations indicated that most of the ionization at higher altitudes resulted from meteors oflarge visual magnitude. Since, as Whipple has shown, the ablation process would probably not occur in the case of micrometeorites because of heat loss by radiation, the collision processes for ionization were r eviewed; it seems that the ion ization process is mainly a function of the relative energy of the co11·'ion, and therefore ablation prior to ionization would not be required for small particles. Using the Jue (of GREENHOW and H AWKINS, 1952) for t he efficiency of t he ionization process and the recently re ised value for the amount of meteoric material entering the atmospher e per day, the rate of production f electrons was found to be 20 electrons/cc sec. From this value and the r ecombination coefficients ·n the E-region, t he equilibrium electron den sity in t he E-region was found to b e between 2 x 104 and 7 x 104 electrons/cc. It is therefore proposed that the night-time value for the electron density in the E -region results from meteoric bombardment, and that sporadic Eis caused by the same process on the assumption t hat the distribution of meteoric particles in space is non-isotropic and contains centres of high density. P erhaps, also, the interaction of charged micrometeorites with the earth's magnetic field, may be considered as a mechanism for t he production of magnetic storms. 1. INTRODUCTION METEORS, as commonly known, are extra-terrestrial part icles of only a few milli grams, which enter the earth's atmosphere at relatively high velocities. In their interaction with the air, they are vaporized by the heat generated and ~re respon sible for the emission of light and. production of ions along the meteor trail. The major portion of the kinetic energy of the meteoric particles is absorbed in the altitude region between 80 and 120 km. It is attempted below to consider whether the integrated effects of this meteoric interaction might contribute to the structure of the E-region. 2. THEORY HERLOFSON (1948) has constructed a model for the interaction of meteoric particles with the atmosphere. It is assumed that in the region of meteoric flash , the mean free path of the molecule is much greater than the radius of the meteor. Under such conditions, the front surface of the meteor is bombarded by single air mole cules and the major portion of them is trapped in the metal surface. The kinetic energy relative to the meteor which is given up to the meteor suffices to bring the temperature to that of ev:aporation. The meteor atoms evaporate off the meteor (ablation) with velocities appropriate to the temperature and the relative velocity of the meteor with respect to the air. From consideration of the physical interaction.of the meteor with the air mass, using the differential form of the conservation of energy and momentum, HERLOFSON determined the equation for the rate of evaporation at any point along th!;) trail. r n = ¾nmax(P/Pmax ) [l - ¼(P/Pmax)]2 (1) wher.e nmax = 7 X 1023 r 00 3 = the maximum rate of evaporation. p = the pressure at any point along the trail. Pmax = 4 X 10- 2 r 00 = pressure along the trail where nmax occurs. 00 = the initial radius of the meteoric particle. 111
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 216 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.