Scale Heights and Pressures in the Upper Atmosphere from Radio-echo Observations of Meteors

Abstract

A split beam radio-echo technique has been used to measure the heights of the reflecting points of meteor trails. The measured width of the distribution of heights has been used in conjunction with the theories previously developed by Kaiser to determine the atmospheric scale height. The observations of sporadic meteors have been divided into velocity groups and values of the scale height have been calculated for each. A value of the atmospheric pressure at the mean height of each group is calculated from the evaporation theory of meteors. For purposes of comparison these results are converted into atmospheric densities which are compared with those obtained from rocket flights and meteor photographs made in New Mexico and Massachusetts. The present results for scale heights and densities are in close agreement with those obtained in New Mexico. In view of this a latitude variation in the density profile, which has been suggested as an explanation of the difference between the New Mexico and Massachusetts results, now seems unlikely.