Lidar and Modeling Studies of the Mesospheric Iron and Sodium Layers

The mesospheric metals are believed to be the product of meteoric ablation. Very thin and brief layers observed in our lidar data, attributed to recently ablated meteors, are used to examine this hypothesis. The altitude distribution of these trails is compared to a model of meteoric deposition, meteor radar data, and average Fe and Na density profiles. The total meteoric influx is derived from our data and argued to be a lower limit on the actual meteoric influx.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Kane, Timothy Joseph

Contributors dc:contributor

• Gardner, C.,

• Engineering, Electronics and Electrical

Identifier

(UMI)AAI9305572

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71980