The light of the night-sky: Analysis of the intensity variations at three stations

Abstract

The present paper may be regarded as a continuation and elaboration of previous papers. A description of the instruments and methods is given in these papers, and it is not proposed to repeat it here. It will be sufficient to state that the light of the night sky was analysed by appropriate colour filters into three spectral regious. The central one is designed to transmit the yellow-green light of the auroral line λ 5577 with as little else as may be. The others transmit red and blue regions of the spectrum to the exclusion of this line. The light transmitted is equated to an artificial self-luminous source, consisting of potassium uranyl sulphate, which is fluorescent under the radioactivity of the contained uranium. Neutral glasses have densities (log 10 opacity) of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, . . . , etc.―from one glass to the next is an increase of one unit on the scale of brightness adopted.

The effect of breaking gravity waves on the dynamics and chemical composition of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere

“…In this section, we present model calculations of these features of the airglow and examine the influence of breaking gravity waves upon their variations with season and latitude. It will be shown that many previously unexplained features of airglow emissions (for example, the spring maximum in the green line which probably was first observed in the 1920's and 1930's by Lord Rayleigh [see Rayleigh, 1935;Hernandez and Sih•erman, 1964]) seem to be in remarkably good agreement with the present model, in spite of the simple parameterization employed for the wave breaking process.…”

“…In particular, the green line of atomic oxygen (557.7 nm) is a visible emission emanating from the 100-km region, and its intensity is related to the density of atomic oxygen at that level. This emission is readily observed from the ground [see, e.g., Rayleigh, 1935] as well as from satellites. Infrared emission from O2(1Ag) has recently been measured by satellite from about 50 to 95 km and can be used to deduce the ozone density in that region .…”

Airglow variability in the context of the global mesospheric circulation

“…The variability of the 557.7 nm green line airglow emission rate was first recognized by Rayleigh (1928) who pondered about its cause, and made extensive observations in Australia and South Africa to compare with those made in Southern England (Rayleigh and Spencer Jones, 1935). In this remarkable study, these authors found that the annual amplitude of emission rate variation was greater at Terling (England) than at Canberra (Australia) or Cape Town (South Africa), and that the semi-annual amplitude was similar at all three stations.…”

Variations of the tropical O(1S) nightglow as observed with the Arecibo Observatory photometer and WINDII on UARS

“…The early statistical analysis of the 10-year long dataset for three stations in Australia, southern England and South Africa was carried out by Rayleigh and Spencer Jones (1935). They found a strong correlation between the O( 1 S) emission and the sunspot area (solar activity).…”