Meteorology

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The Meteor customer deals with those light events in our atmosphere, which scientifically as meteors are known and commonly known as shooting stars and by the entry of meteoroids in the Earth's atmosphere caused. It is directly related to the science of meteorites (also meteoritics ), which investigates the objects ( meteorites ) that have fallen and come to earth .

Meteorology and meteorite science are located in the border area between astronomy , meteorology (i.e. meteorology ), geology and material science . Because of the necessary eyewitness reports, they are dependent on the help of amateur astronomers. Their international cooperation takes place in the International Meteor Organization (IMO) and the European Research Center for Fireballs and Meteorites (ERFM).

Investigated events

A meteor is the brief luminous phenomenon that appears in the sky when a meteoroid penetrates the earth's atmosphere. The light phenomenon itself must always be positioned behind the intruder. Every second, the meteoroid hits an approximately 10–70 km long and several hundred meters thick channel, the intensity of which depends on the speed of entry. The meteorite, the body of the meteor, is always invisible to the observer and its material is usually completely transferred into the resulting collision plasma. As long as the impulse creates plasma, nothing can shine. It is only in the relaxation phase, i.e. in the created bullet channel, that the electrons recombine and emit light. This happens first at the outer edge of the tube and continues inwards and can take a long time to complete. This process can be observed as the afterglow of the meteor.

Methods

The most common method in meteorology is video surveillance. Most of the observational data come from amateur astronomers. The merging in networks makes it possible to document meteors simultaneously from several locations in order to be able to calculate their trajectory. By determining the orbit of meteor phenomena in the atmosphere, on the one hand the path of the meteoroid into interplanetary space can be traced, and on the other hand the fall area of ​​the meteor can be determined if it reaches the earth's surface.

Since the earth passes through areas of higher meteoroid density several times a year, several meteor streams are known during the year. However, it is also important to record meteor rates outside of these currents. By detecting the luminous color or the existence of a tail, conclusions can be drawn about the temperature of the meteorite surface and, in some cases, its condition.

history

The luminous phenomena associated with meteoroids and the noises perceived in connection with them were suspected for a long time as weather phenomena. Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni established a connection with falling cosmic objects for the first time in 1794 in “ On the Cosmic Origin of Meteorites and Fireballs ”. His research also included searching for, collecting and examining the impacted meteorites.

In the first half of the 19th century, the origin of individual meteorites was assumed to be a larger celestial body, which was destroyed in a catastrophic event and must once have been between Mars and Jupiter. An early theory of the flight physics of meteorites was developed by W. Haidinger in 1860, which deals in particular with the shape of the meteorites. He concludes that stone meteorites have already assumed their final shape and have cooled down by the time they reach the lower kilometers of the atmosphere. In later works, Haidinger goes into more detail on the trajectories of meteorites. The importance of eyewitness accounts is particularly evident in the case of the Krähenberg meteorite : during the spectacular impact near working farmers, the temperature of the meteorite was described as lukewarm . G. Neymayer described this meteorite as one of eight cases that occurred in the space of a year and concluded that the origin was a comet. These and other publications on meteorite science are described in detail on the homepage of the Meteorite Recon research project .

Alfred Wegener was more interested in the interaction with the earth's atmosphere. In 1917 he published an article about the color change of large meteors . He planned this as the first part of a three-part treatise Contributions to Meteorology , but had to state: “ The main interest in these questions should be meteorology, but so far the astronomers have leased meteorology - and naturally neglected the atmosphere. ".

The International Meteor Organization was founded in 1988 and, together with the Werkgroep Niews (WGN) , which has been appearing since April 1973, issues communications that are often cited in specialist publications.

From founded in 2004 Initiative starting point ground in 2008 was European Research Center for Fireballs and Meteorites .

See also

literature

  • Jürgen Rendtel: Shooting stars. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig 1991, ISBN 3-332-00399-2 .
  • Alfred Wegener: The detonating meteor from April 3, 1916 in Kurhessen. NG Elwert Verlag, Marburg 2001, ISBN 3-7708-1160-7 .
  • Dieter Heinlein: The fireball from April 6, 2002 and the sensational meteorite fall "Neuschwanstein". 1st edition. Self-published, Augsburg 2004.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Explanations on meteorology on the ERFM website.
  2. State Collection for Paleontology and Geology of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , via EEF Chladni.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.palmuc.de  
  3. Ferdinand Keller: About meteors. In: To the Zurich youth to the year 1838 - From the natural research society. Zurich 1838.
  4. W. Haidinger: A leading form of the meteorites. In: Meeting report of the Mathem.-Naturwissenschaftlichen Class. Volume XL, Vienna 1860.
  5. G. Neymayer: The meteorite of krähenberg. In: XXVIII. & XXIX. Annual report of Pollichia, the natural science association of the Rhine Palatinate. Dürkheim 1871.
  6. ^ Homepage of the research project Meteorite Recon
  7. A. Wegener: The color change of large meteors. In: Abh. Kaiserl. Leop.-Carol. German. Academy of Naturalists. (= Nova Acta 104). 1, 1917, pp. 1-34.
  8. ^ Letter to W. Köppen, 1917; see Ulrich Wutzke Alfred Wegener - annotated directory of the written documents of his life and work.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Ber. Polar research. 288 (1998), ISSN 0176-5027.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / epic.awi.de  
  9. ^ Message 744 from the University of Bonn about the International Meteor Conference 2003