Combined airglow and incoherent scatter observations as a technique for studying neutral atmospheric variations

Abstract

Night airglow 6300 Å intensities and electron density altitude profiles observed at Arecibo have been combined with dissociative recombination theory to obtain information about the nighttime variation of F‐region N2 and O2 densities. The application of this technique is illustrated using data from two nights in March 1971. The gross nighttime variation shows reasonable similarity to the Jacchia [1970] model, and also follows the time variation of the measured exospheric temperature. However, on both nights there is evidence of a postmidnight enhancement of the O2/N2 density ratio associated with a rapid decrease in the height of the F layer.