16 May 1962
High Altitude Observatory
Boulder, Colorado
Hlllcrest 3-2211, Ext. 6591
For Additional Information:
Dr. John W. Firor^ Associate Director of UCAR
for the High Altitude Observatory
BOULDER, Colorado--The existence of a dust layer in the
stratosphere at about 60,000 feet in altitude has been confirmed
by research conducted by two scientists at the High Altitude
Observatory in Boulder.
The research was carried out by
Dr. Gordon A. Newkirk, Jr. and Dr. John A. Eddy, who is now a
member of the scientific staff of the National Bureau of Standards
Boulder Laboratories.
The layer's origin is not yet clearly understood.
But the
research has shown it to be mainly terrestrial in origin, rather
than meteoric.
As a result, Newkirk and Eddy have concluded that the number
of meteoric particles floating in the atmosphere below 80,000
feet is so small that it is difficult to imagine that they would
have any significant effect on the weather.
These research results were reported earlier this month
at the Third International Space Science Symposium in Washington D.
sponsored
by the Committee on Space Research of the International
Council of Scientific Unions.
The paper, delivered by Dr. Newkirk, was one of three
papers delivered by members of the High Altitude Observatory
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I
Scientific Staff*
Dr. Harold Zirin reported on ultraviolet
observations of the sun's atmosphere, and Dr. H. Matsushita
described work concerning the effects on the earth's ionosphere
and magnetic field caused by sun-induced magnetic storms.
The results of Newkirk's and Eddy's experiments, observations
for which were carried out from balloon-borne instruments in
flights in 1959 and I960, confirm the observations of Dr. Christian E.
Junge, an atmospheric chemist (of the Air Force Cambridge Research
Laboratories at Belmont, Massachusetts) and his colleagues, who
first established the existence of the 'dust layer' at 60,000
feet.
Further studies of the layer are expected to reveal new
information about circulation in the high stratosphere.
The balloon-borne observations were taken by a speciallydesigned coronagraph flying at 80,000 feet to measure sky bright­
ness at various angles from the sun and thus determine the size
and number of particles in a column of air above the balloon.
Design of the instruments, the flights, and the analysis of the
data consumed a three-year period.
A major purpose of the experiments was to determine how much
meteoric material collides with the earth's atmosphere.
The
results tend to show that many times more meteoric dust enters
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the earth's outer atmosphere than had been previously estimated,
but the amount, though significant, is probably insufficient to
have much effect on the weather.
Dr. Harold Zirin reported on analysis of rocket-borne spectro­
photometer observations of the ultra-violet spectrum of the sun's
corona.
Zirin's analysis showed the abrupt and unexplained
upward jump in temperature from the chromosphere (the bright gaseous
layer next to the sun's surface) outward to the corona (a much
fainter and more diffuse region farther out from the sun's disk).
The analysis shows no region of transitional temperature between
the chromosphere (10,000 degrees Centigrade) and the corona (about
1,000,000 degrees Centigrade).
This abrupt jump has also been
deduced from observations made of the visible spectrum, but
observations of the ultraviolet provide a much more useful tool
for analyzing the temperature structure of the chromosphere and
and the corona.
The problem in making ultraviolet measurements is that the
earth's atmosphere shields the surface of the earth from a great
part of the ultraviolet light emitted by the sun, so that ultra­
violet observations must be made at extremely high altitudes.
Though ultraviolet observations were pioneered nearly 15 years
ago by scientists of the University of Colorado Physics Department
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and elsewhere^ using German V-2 rockets fired from White Sands,
N. M., the cost and difficulty of rocket firings has meant that
relatively few ultraviolet observations have been made in the
interim.
It is hoped that satellites will provide extensive
observations that will enable scientists to make more precise
measurements in the ultraviolet, and thus to fathom further the
mysterious, intense heating of the corona.
Such understanding
could lead to new understanding of the basic processes at work
in the atmospheres of stars generally.
Dr. H. Matsushita reported on his research on the wide
variety of interrelated events that occur in the earth's
ionosphere and magnetic field as a result of the influx of
solar X-rays, particles and other variable solar emissions.
His work is pointed toward a unified view of the changeable
influences of the sun on the earth.
Dr. Matsushita's paper was concerned specifically with
events high in the earth's atmosphere during magnetic storms,
which are induced by solar events.
Dr. Matsushita reported on the sudden surge in the earth's
magnetic field just prior to the onset of the storms, and
analyzed its possible causes.