Premium
EUV (800‐1400 Å) observations of the tropical airglow
Author(s) -
Chakrabarti Supriya
Publication year - 1984
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/gl011i006p00565
Subject(s) - airglow , extreme ultraviolet lithography , extreme ultraviolet , radiative transfer , physics , recombination , atmospheric sciences , ultraviolet , astrophysics , spectrometer , atomic physics , optics , chemistry , laser , biochemistry , gene
We have obtained the first spectrum of the tropical airglow in the 800‐1400 Å range. The data were obtained at 8 Å resolution by the EUV spectrometer on board the STP78‐1 satellite. The time‐averaged downlooking spectrum within the arc shows strong OI features at 1304 and 1356 Å. We have detected the oxygen recombination continuum at 911 Å, which provides the first conclusive evidence that radiative recombination is the primary excitation mechanism for the tropical ultraviolet emissions. We have also discovered a weak OI 989 Å emission from the tropical arc region, which is not expected in ordinary radiative recombination spectrum. Such observation indicates that other processes, such as dielectronic recombination or mutual neutralization, might be present in these regions.