“…Electronically excited N 2 and O 2 molecules are the subject of intensive theoretical and experimental studies related to radiational processes in the auroral upper atmosphere (Cartwright et al, 1972;Cartwright, 1978;Morrill and Benesch, 1996), the airglow in the region of lower thermosphere -mesosphere (Broadfoot and Kendall, 1968;Shefov et al, 2006), sprites in the middle atmosphere above large thunderstorm systems (Morrill et al, 1998;Bucsela et al, 2003), laser plasmas and gas discharges (Delcroix et al, 1976;Kamaratos, 1997Kamaratos, , 2005aKamaratos, , b, 2006, etc. One of the motivations for the studies was to investigate the role of collisional molecular processes in the electronic excitation and deexcitation of molecules of main atmospheric gases.…”