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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
A model of the interplanetary dust medium that includes two subsystems, a spherical component and a flat one, has been proposed by the author as a result of analysis of radar meteor orbits. The disintegration of short-period comets is the main source of the flat dust cloud, while the disintegration of long-period comets is the main source of the spherical cloud. Assuming that dust particles fall into the Sun due to the Poynting-Robertson effect, one can estimate the intensity of ejection of dust from long-period comets necessary for the maintenance of the observed density of interplanetary dust. It has been found that the long-period comets should eject between 7 × 1014 and 2 × 1015 g of meteoric dust per year.