Some Results of the Determination of the Structural Parameters of the Atmosphere Using the Third Soviet Artificial Earth Satellite

Abstract

The problem of measuring the pressure and density of high layers of the atmosphere using an artificial Earth satellite was discussed in (I). 1 An analysis is given in this work of the state of the ideas held prior to 1957 regarding the structural parameters of the upper atmosphere. By that time the mean distributions of pressure, density and temperature up to a height of 100 km were known (2-4), and it had been established that at heights up to 90 km the atmosphere is intermixed, and that oxygen dissociates above 90 km (5). Up to 1956, direct measurements of the density, pressure and composition of the atmosphere above 100 km were very few in number, and therefore the ideas concerning the atmosphere at these altitudes were not well denned. In recent years experiments have been carried out on the determination of the density of the atmosphere at great altitudes (6*-8). A particularly large contribution to the study of the upper layers of the atmosphere resulted from the investigations made with Soviet artificial Earth satellites, which made it possible to determine the density of the atmosphere both from measurements with manometers installed on the third Soviet Earth satellite (9) and from the drag on the satellites (10-11). The present article is devoted to an analysis of a part of the results of the determination of the density of the atmosphere obtained from manometer measurements on the third Soviet artificial satellite.