Comment on the paper 'On the influx of small comets into the earth's upper atmosphere'

The possibility that comets containing up to 100 tons of ice encounter the earth's atmosphere at a rate of one every 20 min is discussed. Cometary 'hail storms' were proposed to explain observed regular transient decreases in the atmospheric UV dayglow intensity. The decreases take the form of dark 'holes' up to 50 km across. The probability that clouds of objects assumed to be as dark as the nucleus of Comet Halley between the earth and moon would be detectable by ground-based electrooptical deep space telescopes is considered. Conflicting projections of the number of objects which would be detected per hour are examined. High correlations are noted between cometary passages (Comets Encke, Tuttle, Tempel) and intervals of meteor showers (Taurids, Leonids, Geminis, etc.). The holes, however, are not correlated or coincident with the showers. It is suggested that dedicated searches for the unclassified dark objects be carried out in November, when cometary fluxes are high.