The Kinetics of N₂ Triplet Electronic States in the Upper and Middle Atmosphere During Relativistic Electron Precipitation

Abstract

The electronic kinetics of N2 triplet states A3Σu+, B3Πg, W3Δu, B'3Σu−, and C3Πu in the upper and middle atmosphere of the Earth during relativistic electron precipitation is considered. Intramolecular and intermolecular electron energy transfers in inelastic collisions of electronically excited molecular nitrogen with N2 and O2 molecules are taken into account in the calculations. The calculations indicate an influence of atmospheric density increase on the calculated vibrational populations of the B3Πg state. For the first time it is shown that there is a dependence of the calculated column intensity ratios of first and second positive bands on the energy of relativistic electrons. The calculated column intensity ratios I(749 nm)/I(337 nm) and I(669 nm)/I(337 nm) decrease with increasing relativistic electron energy.

Vibrational Kinetics of NO and N2 in the Earth's Middle Atmosphere During GLE69 on January 20, 2005

“…As in our previous papers (Kirillov & Belakhovsky, 2019, 2020a, 2020b) here we similarly consider the excitation of five triplet states of molecular nitrogen in the collisions of N 2 ( X 1 Σ g + , v = 0) molecules with secondary electrons produced in ionization processes at the altitudes of the middle atmosphere $$$e+{\mathrm{N}}_{2}\left({\mathrm{X}}^{1}{{{\Sigma }}_{\mathrm{g}}}^{+},v=0\right)\,\to \,{\mathrm{N}}_{2}\left({\mathrm{A}}^{3}{{{\Sigma }}_{\mathrm{u}}}^{+},{\mathrm{B}}^{3}{{\Pi }}_{\mathrm{g}},{\mathrm{W}}^{3}{{\Delta }}_{\mathrm{u}},{\mathrm{B}}^{\prime 3}{{{\Sigma }}_{\mathrm{u}}}^{-},{\mathrm{C}}^{3}{{\Pi }}_{\mathrm{u}};v\right)+e$$$ and the excitation of three singlet states of N 2 $$$e+{\mathrm{N}}_{2}\left({\mathrm{X}}^{1}{{{\Sigma }}_{\mathrm{g}}}^{+},v=0\right)\,\to \,{\mathrm{N}}_{2}({\mathrm{a}}^{\prime 1}{{{\Sigma }}_{\mathrm{u}}}^{-},{\mathrm{a}}^{1}{{\Pi }}_{\mathrm{g}},{\mathrm{w}}^{1}{{\Delta }}_{\mathrm{u}};v)+e$$$ …”

“…As in our previous papers (Kirillov & Belakhovsky, 2019, 2020a, 2020b here we similarly consider the excitation of five triplet states of molecular nitrogen in the collisions of N 2 (X 1 Σ g + ,v = 0) molecules with secondary electrons produced in ionization processes at the altitudes of the middle atmosphere…”

“…Here we consider the processes of production and quenching for vibrationally excited N 2 (X 1 Σ g + ,v′ > 0) molecules. The same method applied by Kirillov and Belakhovsky (2019, 2020b, 2020a for electronic excitation of molecular nitrogen is used in the calculation of rates of vibrational excitation of N 2 molecules by secondary electrons in the process…”

“…The quenching of the triplet states can be through emissions of the First and Second Positive (1PG and 2PG), Wu-Benesch (WB), Infrared Afterglow (IRAG) and Vegard-Kaplan (VK) band systems and the quenching of the singlet states can be through the radiational emissions of MacFarlane (MF) band systems, Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (LBH) and Ogawa-Tanaka-Wilkinson-Mulliken (OTWM) (Casassa & Golde, 1979;Gilmore et al, 1992) bands of N 2 . Electronic kinetics of the triplet and singlet N 2 states for the altitudes of the middle atmosphere during precipitations of high-energetic particles is described in (Kirillov and Belakhovsky, 2019, 2020a, 2020bKirillov et al, 2021). The kinetics takes into account a redistribution of excitation energy of electronic states in radiational transitions and in inelastic molecular collisions.…”

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

“…The increase of atmospheric density causes more important role of molecular inelastic interactions in the electronic kinetics of As in our previous papers (Kirillov & Belakhovsky, 2019, 2020b, here we similarly consider the excitation of five triplet states of molecular nitrogen in the collisions of N 2 (X 1  g Σ , v = 0) molecules with energetic electrons in the Earth's upper and middle atmosphere:…”