Physical Effects from the Kyiv Meteoroid: 2

Abstract

Comprehensive modeling studies of the thermal, turbulent, and plasma processes induced in all geospheres by the passage and explosion of the Kyiv meteoroid on April 19, 2023, were performed. Thermodynamic and plasma effects, as well as the effects and turbulence, accompanying the passage of the Kyiv meteoroid were estimated. It has been shown that the passage of the celestial body led to the formation of a gas-dust plume. The heated trail of the meteoroid cooled for several seconds. A simplified one-dimensional model of plume motion in the vertical direction is considered. The acceleration and speed of the plume are estimated. It has been shown that the initial acceleration of the plume initially reached a maximum value of 117 m/s² and lasted ~1 ms. Its speed increased from 0 to ~1 m/s, then gradually decreased to 0 m/s. At this speed, the height of the plume’s ascent hardly increased. The products of the explosion contained in the thermal, specks of dust and aerosols, further took part in the following three processes: a slow precipitation to the surface of the Earth, turbulent mixing with the ambient air, and transport by the predominant winds around the globe. The effect of turbulence in the trail has been shown to be well-pronounced, while the effect of magnetic turbulence has been shown to be absent. The following basic parameters of the plasma in the trail have been estimated: the height dependences of the electron densities per unit length and per unit volume, their relaxation times, the particle collision frequencies, the plasma specific conductivities, and the electron temperature relaxation time. At the initial moment, the linear and volume electron densities in the trail have been shown to be equal to approximately 10¹⁷–10²³ and 10¹⁷–10²² m^–3, respectively, and the plasma specific conductivity to be equal to ~10³ Ohm^–1 m^–1. The role of the dusty plasma component was insignificant.