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Effects of atomic nitrogen on the nocturnal ionosphere
Author(s) -
Torr M. R.,
Torr D. G.,
Walker J. C. G.,
Hays P. B.,
Hanson W. B.,
Hoffman J. H.,
Kayser D. C.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl002i009p00385
Subject(s) - thermosphere , airglow , daytime , nitrogen , atomic oxygen , nocturnal , ionosphere , atmospheric sciences , atmosphere (unit) , quenching (fluorescence) , atmospheric chemistry , sink (geography) , atomic physics , analytical chemistry (journal) , environmental science , chemistry , physics , meteorology , environmental chemistry , oxygen , ozone , fluorescence , astronomy , optics , cartography , organic chemistry , geography
Recently, atomic nitrogen densities of ∼5 × 10 7 to 10 8 cm −3 were inferred in the daytime thermosphere from studies of the NI(²D− 4 S) 5200Å emission and from the photochemistry of various ion species using data measured by the Atmosphere Explorer‐C satellite. In this paper we use the photochemistry of NO + and O 2 + at night to determine nocturnal N( 4 S) densities in the thermosphere. We present evidence for a missing source of NO + and a missing sink for O 2 + at night and show that this can be adequately supplied by the reaction O 2 + + N → NO + + O if the N density at 200 km is ∼7 × 10 6 cm −3 . The atomic nitrogen has an important effect on studies of the 6300Å airglow. The omission of N in calculations of O(¹D) using ground‐based data results in an overestimate of the rate coefficient for quenching of O(¹D) by N 2 .
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