Atmospheric dayglow diagnostics involving the O₂(b‐X) Atmospheric band emission: Global Oxygen and Temperature (GOAT) mapping

Abstract

The terrestrial dayglow displays prominent emission features from the 0‐0 and 1‐1 bands of the O2 Atmospheric band system in the 760–780 nm region. We present an analysis of observations in this wavelength region recorded by the Space Shuttle during the Arizona Airglow Experiment. A major conclusion is that the dominant product of O(1D) + O2 energy transfer is O2(b, v = 1), a result that corroborates our previous laboratory studies. Moreover, critical to the interpretation of dayglow is the possible interference by N2 and N2+ bands in the 760–780 nm region, where the single‐most important component is the N2 1PG 3–1 band that overlaps with the O2(b‐X) 0‐0 band. When present, this background must be accounted for to reveal the O2(b‐X) 0‐0 and 1‐1 bands for altitudes at which the O2 and N2/N2+ emissions coincide. Finally, we exploit the very different collisional behavior of the two lowest O2(b) vibrational levels to outline a remote sensing technique that provides information on Atmospheric composition and temperature from space‐based observations of the 0‐0 and 1‐1 O2 atmospheric bands.

A previously unrecognized source of the O 2 Atmospheric band emission in Earth’s nightglow

“…The O( 1 D ) atoms generated by the OH(high v ) + O multiquantum vibrational relaxation process also provide a significant source of O 2 AB emission. O( 1 D ) atoms rapidly transfer energy to ground-state O 2 and generate electronically excited O 2 ( b ) molecules ( 28 , 29 )normalO(1italicDfalse)+O2→O2false(italicb,italicv=0,1false)+normalO(3italicPfalse)…”

“…This process is important in the dayglow ( 29 ) but has never been considered for the nighttime O 2 AB emission. The availability of O( 1 D ) from the multiquantum relaxation process of reaction 5 leads to the efficient production of O 2 ( b , v = 0) because collisions with O 2 rapidly relax O 2 ( b , v = 1) to O 2 ( b , v = 0) ( 20 ).…”

The Kinetics of O2 Singlet Electronic States in the Upper and Middle Atmosphere During Energetic Electron Precipitation

“…Dunlea et al 2005, Kirillov (2013), and Burkholder et al (2015) Pejakovic et al (2014) and Slanger et al (2017) O Khomich et al (2008) penie, 1972); A are spontaneous radiational probabilities for Infrared Atmospheric, Noxon, Atmospheric (Khomich et al, 2008), and Herzberg I, II, III, Chamberlain (Bates, 1989) transitions; and k * and k ** mean the constants of intramolecular and intermolecular electron energy transfer processes, respectively.…”

Note on consistency between Kalogerakis–Sharma Mechanism (KSM) and two-step mechanism of atmospheric band emission (762 nm)

“…[O( 1 D)] due to KSM using photochemical equilibrium (the life time is less than 1 s because of strong quenching; e.g. Slanger et al (2017), Yankovsky and Manuilova (2018)) and can be written as follows:…”