A space charge model for electrophonic bursters

The sounds accompanying electrophonic burster meteors are characteristicall y described as bring akin to short duration "pops" and staccato-like "click s". As a phenomenon distinct from the enduring electrophonic sounds that oc casion ally accompany the passage and ablation of large meteoroids in the E arth's lower atmosphere, the bursters have proved stubbornly difficult to e xplain. A straightforward calculation demonstrates that in contradistinctio n to the enduring electrophonic sounds, the electrophonic bursters are not generated as a consequence of interactions between the meteoroid ablation p lasma and the Earth's geomagnetic field. Here we present a novel and hither to unrecorded model for the generation of short-duration pulses in an obser ver's local electrostatic field. Our model is developed according to the ge neration of a strong electric field across a shock wave propagating in a pl asma. In this sense, the electrophonic bursters are associated with the cat astrophic disruption of large meteoroids in the Earth's atmosphere. We deve lop an equation for the description of the electric field strength in terms of the electron temperature and the electron volume density. Also, by link ing the electron line density to a meteor's absolute visual magnitude, we o btain a lower limit to the visual magnitude of electrophonic burster meteor s of M-V approximate to -6.6, in good agreement with the available observat ions.