High‐resolution terrestrial nightglow emission line atlas from UVES/VLT: Positions, intensities, and identifications for 2808 lines at 314–1043 nm

Abstract

The atlas of terrestrial nightglow emission lines from spectra of the night sky obtained from the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) on the 8.2‐m UT2 telescope at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), European Southern Observatory, Cerro Paranal, Chile, consists of 2808 line positions, line widths, and intensities over the 314–1043 nm spectral range (Hanuschik, 2003). These lines have been absolute intensity calibrated and measured at a spectral resolution (λ/Δλ) of ∼43,000–45,000. Presented here are spectroscopic identifications for 98% of the lines in the atlas, made primarily through comparisons with synthetic spectra of prominent OH and O2 nightglow emission systems. The ability to simulate these systems successfully has shown that there are many additional lines that could be added to the atlas. We believe that all the O2 and OH lines in the measured region can now be successfully modeled with an accuracy better than the instrumental spectral resolution.