Retrieval of mesospheric sodium from OSIRIS nightglow measurements and comparison to ground-based Lidar measurements

Abstract

The understanding of the excitation mechanism of the sodium D-line nightglow emission is important for many investigations of atomic sodium in the upper mesosphere region. In 1939, Sidney Chapman proposed a first scheme of the chemical reactions involving sodium and ozone to explain the yellow sodium line doublet in the terrestrial nightglow. Later, it became clear that this mechanism could not explain the observed variability in the Na D-line ratio. Hence, Slanger et al. (2005) suggested a modified Chapman mechanism. However, it is well accepted that there is still a parameter that is not well quantified, i.e., the branching ratio fA that defines how many sodium atoms are produced (via the reaction Na + O3) in the excited Na(P2J) state. Here, we retrieve sodium profiles in the mesosphere region from limb measurements carried out with the OSIRIS instrument on the Odin satellite between 2002 and until recently. These profiles are compared to profiles obtained from ground-based Lidar measurements. Until 2010, the Lidar was located in Fort Collins, Colorado at 40.5° N and 105.0° W and was then moved to Logan, Utah at 41.8° N and 111.2° W. In this study, we found 20 nights with measurements suitable for comparison. By adjusting the branching ratio in the retrieval algorithm until the Lidar Na-profile and the satellite Na-profile agree best and combining the three different approaches for the comparison we propose a value of the branching ratio of: 0.064±0.028.