Effects of size-dependent emissivity on maximum temperatures during micrometeorite entry

Journal Article · Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/90JA01998· OSTI ID:5315958

Rizk, B; Hunten, D M; Engel, S ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson (USA)

The authors have numerically examined the effects of adopting the absorption efficiencies predicted by the Mie theory for spheres on the maximum temperature of pure olivine and pure iron micrometeorites entering the Earth's atmosphere and pure water ice micrometeorites entering the Uranian atmosphere. They found that particles of micron and submicron size with the optical properties that characterize these substances tend not to radiate away their frictional heat of entry as efficiently as classical micrometeorite theory predicts. Consequently, the degree to which these particles are heated and altered during entry is increased. They conclude that micron and submicron-sized particles are more realistically treated as Mie spheres than as blackbodies, when accurate values exist for the imaginary index of refraction at wavelengths of a few microns.

• OSTI ID: 5315958
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Vol. 96:A2; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
METEORITES
INTERACTIONS
PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES
URANUS PLANET
ABSORPTION
EMISSIVITY
HEATING
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
OLIVINE
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PARTICLE SIZE
SPHERES
ATMOSPHERES
MATHEMATICS
MINERALS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLANETS
SILICATE MINERALS
SIZE
SURFACE PROPERTIES
640200* - Atmospheric Physics
640107 - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Planetary Phenomena