Abstract
The use of satellite measurements of the hydroxyl airglow volume emission rate profile to infer the atomic oxygen profile of the mesopause region is complicated by uncertainties as to the collision de‐excitation mechanism and the vibration transition probabilities that are needed for the analysis. In this paper, we demonstrate that the shape of the derived atomic oxygen profiles is, to a large extent, independent of the choice of these factors. We use data from two nights of observation from the Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII) instrument onboard Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS) where the instrument observed the hydroxyl emission and the oxygen greenline emission on alternate orbits. The comparison between the derived atomic oxygen profiles from the two emissions is difficult because the region of overlap of good quality data lies in between the peaks and is small (about 4 km). Also, the altitude of the good overlap is not fixed but is a function of both latitude and local time and may lie anywhere in the altitude range from 88 to 94 km because the heights of the emission layers also change. We have adopted a technique of doing the comparison only at certain altitude/local time combinations depending on where the best data exists. The hydroxyl parameter set that used Goldman transition probabilities and a sudden death quenching model best fit the greenline derived atomic oxygen and will be used to complete a full atomic oxygen climatology from 80 to 110 km.
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