Physics
Scientific paper
Apr 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja.....1616s&link_type=abstract
EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #1616
Physics
Scientific paper
The terrestrial nightglow is not limited to emission originating in the 80-100 km altitude range. Ionospheric features, c.f. 630 nm emission from O(^1D) are often intense, particularly in equatorial regions at solar maximum. From sky spectra measured at the Keck I and II telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawai'i, we find that emission in the O_2(b-X) 1-1 Atmospheric band can be a prominent feature in the equatorial ionosphere, its source being energy transfer from O(^1D) to O_2. The emission originates in the 150-200 km region, the evidence for which is that the rotational temperature of the band is approximately 1000 K. This single band can have an intensity of 100 R. It is discernible from the ground at all times, but is typically weaker than the same band generated in the mesosphere, by oxygen atom recombination, which exhibits a rotational temperature close to 200 K. Because of quenching and radiative lifetime characteristics, the ionospheric emitter, O_2(b, v=1), and its source, O(^1D), do not radiate at the same altitude. Therefore their emissions are not temporally correlated. At solar minimum, the ionospheric 1-1 band has a temperature near 700 K. Because the (unquenched) b-X 0-0 Atmospheric band is emitted simultaneously with the 1-1 band in the ionosphere, its emission is even more intense, but as viewed from the ground most of its radiation is absorbed in the Fraunhofer A-band. Nevertheless, its high-J rotational lines penetrate the atmosphere and can be identified when the 1-1 band is strong.
Cosby Philip C.
Huestis David L.
Slanger Tom G.
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