A comparison of measurements of the oxygen nightglow and atomic oxygen in the lower thermosphere

Abstract

Abstract-We have investigated the relationship between the oxygen nightglow and the atomic oxygen density in the lower thermosphere. This was done using data from two sounding rocket experiments conducted over White Sands Missile Range (32"N, 106"W). The first flight was launched on 2 November 1978 while the second was launched on 7 December 1981. Both flights contained resonance lamps to measure the atomic oxygen density. The peak density in both cases was near 1.9 x 10" cme3. In addition, the 1978 flight contained a photometer to measure the 5577 A green line while the 1981 flight contained photometers to measure the green line, the U.V. nightglow, and the 7620 8, (0,O) atmospheric band. We have used empirical models of these airglow features to compare with the 0 density measurements. In the case of the atmospheric band, excellent agreement is seen concerning the shape of the atomic oxygen profile, while some discrepancies were seen with the Her&erg band and the green line. In all cases, the absolute value of our peak 0 density appeared to be about 2.5 times lower, for a given airglow intensity, than previous measurements.

Middle and upper thermospheric odd nitrogen: 2. Measurements of nitric oxide from Ionospheric Spectroscopy and Atmospheric Chemistry (ISAAC) satellite observations of NO γ band emission

“…First, nightglow emission for this period from the O 2 Herzberg bands was used to apply a systematic offset to computed tangent altitudes. It has been well documented that the Herzberg emission is sharply peaked between 95 and 100 km altitude, with a half width of about 8 km [ Siskind and Sharp , 1991; Melo et al , 1997]. This constrains the tangent altitude registration with an uncertainty of about ±6 km.…”

Atomic oxygen in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere derived from SABER: Algorithm theoretical basis and measurement uncertainty

“…This debate was due in part to the challenges associated with the measurements including knowledge of the rates and mechanisms of the airglow and optical contamination and shock effects from the rockets carrying the payloads. Reported peak concentration values from different techniques spanned an order of magnitude, from 10 11 cm −3 to 10 12 cm −3 [ Llewellyn , ], although Siskind and Sharp [] argued that some of the discrepancy could be mitigated with a better understanding of airglow variability. A number of rocket flights and theoretical studies in the 1980s investigated the OH airglow in great detail [e.g., McDade and Llewellyn , ; McDade et al ., ; McDade , ].…”

Observations of molecular oxygen Atmospheric band emission in the thermosphere using the near infrared spectrometer on the ISS/RAIDS experiment

“…The O 2 Atmospheric band, or “A‐band” is one of the brightest emission features observed in the visible and near infrared region of the airglow spectrum (L. Broadfoot, STS‐85 the Arizona airglow experiment glo‐5 and glo‐6, 1999, available at http://glo.lpl.arizona.edu/glo/glo56end.html). This emission originates in a broad altitude region between ∼40 km and 200 km in the dayglow and from a thin layer between ∼80 and 100 km in the nightglow [ Bucholtz et al , 1986; Skinner and Hays , 1985; Marsh et al , 1999; Torr et al , 1986; Greer et al , 1981; McDade and Llewellyn , 1986; Siskind and Sharp , 1991; Sivjee et al , 1999]. Because of the high brightness, the O 2 A‐band emissions are attractive spectral features for upper atmospheric remote sensing [ Sheese et al , 2010, 2011a, 2011b; Bovensmann et al , 1999] but the brightest (0,0) band cannot be observed from the Earth's surface due to strong self absorption below ∼70 km [ Llewellyn et al , 2004].…”