Excited-State Formation and Destruction in Mixtures of Atomic Oxygen and Nitrogen

Abstract

Absolute measurements were made of the intensity of emission from atomic oxygen (5577 Å), molecular oxygen (the Herzberg bands below 4000 Å, the atmospheric band at 7618 Å), nitric oxide (the β bands below 4000 Å), and molecular nitrogen (the first positive bands from 5000 Å to 6000 Å) when excited in a low-pressure gas atmosphere containing atomic nitrogen and/or oxygen in absolutely measured quantities. The relationship between light emission and atomic concentration, pressure, gas mixture, and quenching gas concentration was obtained. With these data as bases, excitation and de-excitation processes are discussed and rate coefficients of several elementary processes deduced. These have been applied to nightglow phenomena of the earth's upper atmosphere.