Abstract
Abstract. Based on self-consistent rocket-borne measurements of temperature, the densities of atomic oxygen and neutral air, and the volume emission of the atmospheric band (762 nm), we examined the one-step and two-step excitation mechanism of O2b1Σg+ for nighttime conditions. Following McDade et al. (1986), we derived the empirical fitting coefficients, which parameterize the atmospheric band emission O2b1Σg+-X3Σg-0,0. This allows us to derive the atomic oxygen concentration from nighttime observations of atmospheric band emission O2b1Σg+-X3Σg-0,0. The derived empirical parameters can also be utilized for atmospheric band modeling. Additionally, we derived the fit function and corresponding coefficients for the combined (one- and two-step) mechanism. The simultaneous common volume measurements of all the parameters involved in the theoretical calculation of the observed O2b1Σg+-X3Σg-0,0 emission, i.e., temperature and density of the background air, atomic oxygen density, and volume emission rate, is the novelty and the advantage of this work.
Highlights
The mesopause region is essential to understanding the chemical and physical processes in the upper atmosphere because this is the region of coldest temperature and highest turbulence in the atmosphere (e.g., Lübken, 1997), the region of formation of such phenomena as noctilucent clouds (NLCs) and polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSEs) (e.g., Rapp and Lübken, 2004), the region of gravity wave (GW) breaking and the formation of secondary GWs (Becker and Vadas, 2018), and the region of coupling between the mesosphere and thermosphere
Planetary wave climatology has been investigated by the Spectral Airglow Temperature Imager (SATI) instrument (López-González et al, 2009)
The peak of volume emission was detected between 95 and 97 km with values of more than 1700 [phot. cm−3 s−1]; this is slightly beneath the atomic oxygen corresponding maximum and slightly above the secondary temperature minimum. Note that this points to the competition of temperature and the atomic oxygen concentration in processes of atomic oxygen excited-state O2 b1
Summary
The mesopause region is essential to understanding the chemical and physical processes in the upper atmosphere because this is the region of coldest temperature (during summer at high latitudes) and highest turbulence in the atmosphere (e.g., Lübken, 1997), the region of formation of such phenomena as noctilucent clouds (NLCs) and polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSEs) (e.g., Rapp and Lübken, 2004), the region of gravity wave (GW) breaking and the formation of secondary GWs (Becker and Vadas, 2018), and the region of coupling between the mesosphere and thermosphere This region is characterized by different airglow emissions and, by the emissions of the atmospheric band, which is produced by the excited state of molecular oxygen O2. Concluding remarks and a summary are given in the last section
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