Possible relationship of meteor disintegration in the mesosphere and enhancement of sodium atoms: A case study on july 05, 2013

Abstract

• Possible relationship of meteor disintegration and enhancement of sodium atoms. • The sodium cloud was carried away by the horizontal wind and suggest that the increase in sodium density at São José dos Campos is a dynamical process. • The all-sky images show that the sodium cloud around 90 km was formed along the bright part of the fireball. Our observations show that on some occasions an influx of meteor ablation possibly contributes to appearance of a sudden enhancement in mesospheric sodium density. On July 05, 2013, all-sky images with a narrow sodium filter in the 589 nm emission, operating at Cachoeira Paulista (22.7° S, 45° W) and lidar observations of the mesospheric sodium layer, operating at São José dos Campos (23.1° S, 45.9° W), both observatories in Brazil, show a possible relationship of meteor disintegration and appearance of sodium enhancements on the background layer. After the meteor impact, the all-sky images showed a sodium cloud that was seen for about 10 min through the images in the NaD 589 nm emission, with initial dimensions of approximately 36 km × 9 km and initial speed of about 90 m/s southward. In addition, our observations show that the movement of sodium cloud in the horizontal plane around 90 km is relatively anisotropic and change the dimensions with time.