Airglow observations from OSO-B2 satellite

Abstract

Four photometers sensitive to three wide spectral bands observed the continuum airglow in profile once per orbit from the satellite OSO-B2. The tangential enhancement (factor of 35) gave good discrimination against zodiacal light and background starlight. Airglow intensity in the astronomical visible spectral region varied between 0.1 and 0.9 R/A and from 0.06 to 0.5 R/A in the blue spectral region. No significant latitude variation was found although a considerable temporal change occurred during the ten months of satellite operation. No correlation was found between airglow intensity and the South Atlantic geomagnetic anomaly or with solar events.

Airglow

“…Some or all of the major emission lines that appear in the airglow at night (namely, the Herzberg bands of molecular oxygen, the 5577-and 6300-A lines of atomic oxygen, the 5890-and 5896-A doublet of sodi um and the hydroxyl bands in the visible and near infra red) have been studied at many observatories from the Antarctic {Gordon, 1968] to the north polar regions [gather, 1969a, b], in the equatorial regions [Elliott md LaValle, 1968;Kulkarni and Steiger, 1967;Sears, |967;Smith and Steiger, 1968;Steiger, 1967], and at middle latitudes [Brenton and Silverman, 1^70;Greenspan andWoodman, 1967], from aircraft \Eathcr, 1961a, b;Glass et al, 1970;Markham and AnctiU 1961b;Sharp and Rees, 1970], and from satel lites [Sparrow et al, 1968]. Warnecke et al [1969] have discussed the effects of meteorological conditions on the data gathered by satellite, effects so pronounced that useful meteorological data have been obtained with the airglow photometers on the Ogo 4 satellite.…”

“…The characteristics of air afterglows, particularly in the infrared, have been discussed and compared with observations of the nightglow continuum radiation by Stair and Gauvin [1967]. Other discussions of the night glow continuum emission are those of Gadsden [1967c], Sparrow et al [1968], and Weinberg et al [1968], who deal specifically with the polarization of the night sky radiation. Gadsden and Marovich [1969] and Lagos [1969] have discussed possible effects of vertical movements and oscillations of the atmosphere on the 5577-A radi ance.…”