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Main Authors: Arham, Md Shahrier Islam, Panthi, Prasun, Heo, Min
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.28785
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_version_ 1866917490089525248
author Arham, Md Shahrier Islam
Panthi, Prasun
Heo, Min
author_facet Arham, Md Shahrier Islam
Panthi, Prasun
Heo, Min
contents Micrometeoroids enter Earth's atmosphere at hypervelocity speeds and experience rapid coupling between drag, heating, radiation, melting, ablation, and deceleration. This paper develops a reduced threshold model for the thermal survival boundary of spherical micrometeoroids. The model uses free molecular drag, an exponential atmosphere, projected-area heating, full-sphere radiative cooling, and a surplus-heat ablation rule at the melting temperature. The switching surface $T=T_m$ is treated as a Filippov/complementarity surface. Sustained melting occurs when the local heating-to-radiation ratio exceeds unity. Under the additional Allen--Eggers assumptions of constant radius, constant entry angle, negligible gravity during the main heating interval, and constant transport coefficients, this threshold yields the classical approximate survival scaling $r_0^{\rm crit}\sim v_0^{-3}$. An exact radius-loss identity is obtained along the prescribed Allen--Eggers trajectory, and a perturbative stability estimate explains when this expression approximates the full reduced model. The inverse problem is formulated through a transfer matrix from pre-atmospheric entry bins to observed survivor bins. Entry bins with zero survival probability lie in the survivor-only null space and require external information for reconstruction. The framework gives a compact analytical description of threshold entry survival and identifies the information lost when only surviving particles are observed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_28785
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Threshold Model for Micrometeoroid Atmospheric Entry: Filippov Dynamics, Survival Estimates, and Survivor-Only Inverse Limits
Arham, Md Shahrier Islam
Panthi, Prasun
Heo, Min
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Dynamical Systems
34A36, 34A60, 37N05, 85A04
Micrometeoroids enter Earth's atmosphere at hypervelocity speeds and experience rapid coupling between drag, heating, radiation, melting, ablation, and deceleration. This paper develops a reduced threshold model for the thermal survival boundary of spherical micrometeoroids. The model uses free molecular drag, an exponential atmosphere, projected-area heating, full-sphere radiative cooling, and a surplus-heat ablation rule at the melting temperature. The switching surface $T=T_m$ is treated as a Filippov/complementarity surface. Sustained melting occurs when the local heating-to-radiation ratio exceeds unity. Under the additional Allen--Eggers assumptions of constant radius, constant entry angle, negligible gravity during the main heating interval, and constant transport coefficients, this threshold yields the classical approximate survival scaling $r_0^{\rm crit}\sim v_0^{-3}$. An exact radius-loss identity is obtained along the prescribed Allen--Eggers trajectory, and a perturbative stability estimate explains when this expression approximates the full reduced model. The inverse problem is formulated through a transfer matrix from pre-atmospheric entry bins to observed survivor bins. Entry bins with zero survival probability lie in the survivor-only null space and require external information for reconstruction. The framework gives a compact analytical description of threshold entry survival and identifies the information lost when only surviving particles are observed.
title A Threshold Model for Micrometeoroid Atmospheric Entry: Filippov Dynamics, Survival Estimates, and Survivor-Only Inverse Limits
topic Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Dynamical Systems
34A36, 34A60, 37N05, 85A04
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.28785