Infrared Glow of Nitric Oxide in Earth’s Middle Atmosphere during GLE Events of the 23rd Solar Cycle

Abstract

The article considers the production kinetics of vibrationally excited NO(X2Π, 0) molecules at heights of Earth’s middle atmosphere during the precipitation of high-energy protons. The intensity profiles of the luminescence of the infrared bands of nitric oxide at 5.3 and 2.7 μm were calculated for precipitation of high-energy protons into Earth’s atmosphere during the events GLE65, GLE67, GLE69, and GLE70 of the 23rd solar cycle. Calculations have shown that the highest integral luminescence intensity values of the 5.3 and 2.7 μm bands were obtained for GLE69: 5.7 and 0.18 kR (kilorayleighs), respectively. Comparison of the calculation results for the 5.3 µm band during the GLE69 event with experimental data obtained from the TIMED spacecraft on January 20, 2005, showed that the calculation results were overestimated by a factor of 2.