Abstract
The rocketborne measurements of the [OI] 5577 Å emission reported here are from an attempt made to determine the distribution of atomic oxygen from the sequential measurements of the brightness of the [OI] green line emission and the chemiluminescence of nitric oxide. Our results show that a) this emission originates from two layers, one around 100 km and the other above 150 km, and b) the peak concentrations of atomic oxygen determined from the Chapman and the Barth mechanism are 7 × 10 11 and 9 × 10 10 cm −3 respectively. Though the peak concentrations differ from each other by an order of magnitude, the profiles from the two mechanisms are very much similar in shape. With the new rate coefficient as 1· 5 × 10 −33 cm 6/sec, the Chapman mechanism is adequate for explaining the [OI] green line emission around 100 km.
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