Excitation mechanism of the mesospheric sodium nightglow

Details Excitation mechanism of the mesospheric sodium nightglow Excitation mechanism of the mesospheric sodium nightglow

Apr 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992natur.356..414h&link_type=abstract

Nature (ISSN 0028-0836), vol. 356, no. 6368, April 2, 1992, p. 414-416. Research supported by NSF.

Physics

21

Atmospheric Chemistry, Mesosphere, Meteor Trails, Nightglow, Oxygen Atoms, Sodium, Chapman-Enskog Theory, Molecular Excitation, Ozonometry, Reaction Kinetics

Scientific paper

The Chapman mechanism attributes the atmospheric sodium nightglow and luminescence of meteor trails to the reaction between NaO and oxygen atoms, requiring an unusually high rate of formation of excited Na*(2P) relative to ground state Na(2S) atoms from the NaO + O reaction. But laboratory studies of the kinetics show a very low Na*(2P) formation rate with branching ratio less than 0.01. By extending the symmetry correlation between reactant and product electronic states considered by Bates and Ohja (1980), it is shown here that reaction of excited-state NaO with oxygen atoms does indeed yield branching ratios consistent with the Chapman mechanism. It is inferred that the NaO + O potential-energy surfaces leading to excited Na*(2P) atoms involve doublet rather than quartet spin configurations, and the branching ratio is close to zero for ground-state NaO but about 2/3 for excited-state NaO. If confirmed experimentally, this finding may enable the sodium nightglow to be used as a quantitative measure of mesospheric ozone concentration.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Excitation mechanism of the mesospheric sodium nightglow does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Excitation mechanism of the mesospheric sodium nightglow, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Excitation mechanism of the mesospheric sodium nightglow will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1738832