The concentration of calcium ions and of free electrons in a meteor coma*
Institute of Astrophysics, Tajik Academy of Sciences, and Isaac Newton Institute of Chile, Tajikistan Branch, Bukhoro Str. 22, Dushanbe 734042, Tajikistan e-mail: [pbb;gulya]@ac.tajik.net
Received:
4
November
2003
Accepted:
23
April
2004
Prism spectra are studied of eight bright meteors, belonging to
different showers and photographed by small cameras
in the Gissar observatory of the Institute of Astrophysics,
Tajik Academy of Sciences. Monochromatic light curves
for the H and K spectral lines of the ionized calcium doublet
are constructed and from the ratio of their intensities at
selected points along the meteor trajectories the column
NCaII and the volume nCaII concentrations of
calcium ions are determined. The obtained values 
cm-2 and 
cm-3 are in good agreement with the
estimates of calcium abundance obtained by other methods and confirm
that there is almost full ionization of calcium atoms in
meteor comae. The volume concentration of free electrons 
cm-3 is defined, and the excitation
temperature is calculated along the meteor paths.
Key words: meteors, meteoroids
© ESO, 2004