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

Abstract

Abstract For more than 30 years, a two-step mechanism was used to explain observed Atmospheric band emission (762 nm) in mesopause region. A new mechanism, which leads to the formation of electronically excited molecular oxygen that gives this emission, was proposed recently. We show, based on an analytical solution, that the fit-functions for Atmospheric band volume emission in the case of the two-step mechanism and the new Kalogerakis–Sharma Mechanism (KSM) have analogous expression. This derivation solves the problem of consistency between the well-known two-step mechanism and the newly proposed KSM.

Keywords

• Atmospheric band emission
• Kalogerakis–Sharma Mechanism
• Airglow
• Two-step mechanism
• Mesopause region