Deceleration and Vertical Motion of a Gas Puff Released into the Upper Atmosphere

摘要

A study has been made of the slowing down of a gas puff released into the upper atmosphere at 100 km and its subsequent vertical motion, by use of a snow plow model. It was found that the center of mass velocity and the expansion velocity decrease to 1 percent of their initial values in about 3 seconds, at which time an ambient mass about 90 times the original mass has interacted with the gas. The temperature rise, although high initially, decreases rapidly to about 3 degrees when the vertical motion starts. For this temperature rise, the calculated values of amplitude and maximum velocity of the vertical motion were well below the observed values. (Author)