Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Jan 2019)

Atmospheric band fitting coefficients derived from a self-consistent rocket-borne experiment

  • M. Grygalashvyly,
  • M. Eberhart,
  • J. Hedin,
  • B. Strelnikov,
  • F.-J. Lübken,
  • M. Rapp,
  • M. Rapp,
  • S. Löhle,
  • S. Fasoulas,
  • M. Khaplanov,
  • M. Khaplanov,
  • J. Gumbel,
  • E. Vorobeva

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-1207-2019
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19
pp. 1207 – 1220

Abstract

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Based on self-consistent rocket-borne measurements of temperature, the densities of atomic oxygen and neutral air, and the volume emission of the atmospheric band (762 nm), we examined the one-step and two-step excitation mechanism of O2b1Σg+ for nighttime conditions. Following McDade et al. (1986), we derived the empirical fitting coefficients, which parameterize the atmospheric band emission O2b1Σg+-X3Σg-0,0. This allows us to derive the atomic oxygen concentration from nighttime observations of atmospheric band emission O2b1Σg+-X3Σg-0,0. The derived empirical parameters can also be utilized for atmospheric band modeling. Additionally, we derived the fit function and corresponding coefficients for the combined (one- and two-step) mechanism. The simultaneous common volume measurements of all the parameters involved in the theoretical calculation of the observed O2b1Σg+-X3Σg-0,0 emission, i.e., temperature and density of the background air, atomic oxygen density, and volume emission rate, is the novelty and the advantage of this work.