Abstract
Abstract : Using data reported from visual meteor counts, we have derived meteor influx rates and size distributions characteristic of the outburst portion of the Leonid meteor stream. We have used these, along with an assumed background flux rate and distribution, in a comprehensive model for atmospheric metals to derive the modifications in the metal layers caused by the Leonid showers of recent years. The model allows for ablation, deposition, diffusion and chemical dynamics, thereby permitting the computation of the modifications in the layers due to the showers in a self-consistent manner, based on observed absolute influx rates. We find that a significant increase in the metal column density is obtained, even from the relatively minor shower of 1996. In the case of neutral potassium, the results are in reasonable agreement with measured column density increases during the shower peak. By scaling the hourly rate of visual meteors to those of the more spectacular showers of, e.g., 1966, we investigate the atmospheric consequences of these major cosmic events.
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