Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry observations of daytime mesospheric O2(1Δ) 1.27 μm emission and derivation of ozone, atomic oxygen, and solar and chemical energy deposition rates

Abstract

We report observations of the daytime O2(1Δ) airglow emission at 1.27 μm recorded by the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument on the NASA Thermosphere‐Ionosphere‐Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite. The measured limb radiances are inverted to yield vertical profiles of the volume emission rate of energy from the O2 molecule. From these emission rates we subsequently derive the mesospheric ozone concentrations using a nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium (non‐LTE) radiative and kinetic model. Rates of energy deposition due to absorption of ultraviolet radiation in the Hartley band of ozone are also derived, independent of knowledge of the ozone abundance and solar irradiances. Atomic oxygen concentrations are obtained from the ozone abundance using photochemical steady state assumptions. Rates of energy deposition due to exothermic chemical reactions are also derived. The data products illustrated here are from a test day (4 July 2002) of SABER Version 1.07 data which are now becoming publicly available. This test day illustrates the high quality of the SABER O2(1Δ) airglow and ozone data and the variety of fundamental science questions to which they can be applied.