First observation of meteoritic charged dust in the tropical mesosphere

Abstract

We discuss a recent sounding rocket experiment which found charged dust in the Earth's tropical mesosphere. The dust detector was designed to measure small (5000 - 10000 amu) charged dust particles, most likely of meteoric origin. A 5 km thick layer of positively charged dust was found at an altitude of 90 km, in the vicinity of an observed sporadic sodium layer and sporadic E layer. The observed dust was positively charged in the bulk of the dust layer, but was negatively charged near the bottom.