Thermospheric nitric oxide from the ATLAS 1 and Spacelab 1 missions

Journal Article · Fri Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995 · Journal of Geophysical Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/95JA01040· OSTI ID:175849

Torr, M R ^[1]; Torr, D G; Chang, T ^[2]

---

1. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL (United States)
2. Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL (United States); and others

Spectral and spatial images obtained with the Imaging Spectrometric Observatory on the ATLAS 1 and Spacelab 1 missions are used to study the ultraviolet emissions of nitric oxide in the thermosphere. BY synthetically fitting the measured NO gamma bands, intensities are derived as a function of altitude and latitude. We find that the NO concentrations inferred from the ATLAS 1 measurements are higher than predicted by our thermospheric airglow model and tend to lie to the high side of a number of earlier measurements. By comparison with synthetic spectral fits, the shape of the NO {gamma} bands is used to derive temperature as a function of altitude. Using the simultaneously acquired altitude images of NO {gamma} band temperature and intensity in the thermosphere. THe lower thermospheric temperature images show structure as a function of altitude. The spatial imaging technique appears to be a viable means of obtaining temperatures in the middle and lower thermosphere, provided that good information is also obtained at the higher altitudes, as the contribution of the overlying, hotter NO is nonnegligible. By fitting both self-absorbed and nonabsorbed bands of the NO gamma system, we show that the self absorption effects are observable up to 200 km, although small above 150 km. The spectral resolution of the instrument (1.6 {angstrom}) allows separation of the N{sup +}({sup 5}S) doublet, and we show the contribution of this feature to the combination of the NO {gamma}(1,0) band and the N{sup +}({sup 5}S) doublet as a function of altitude (less than 10% below 200 km). Spectral images including the NO {sigma} bands support previous findings that the fluorescence efficiency is much higher than that determined from laboratory measurements. The Spacelab 1 data indicate the presence of a significant population of hot NO in the vehicle environment of that early shuttle mission. 109 refs., 28 figs., 6 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 175849
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research Journal Issue: A9 Vol. 100; ISSN JGREA2; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

40 CHEMISTRY
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
66 PHYSICS
ATLAS ROCKETS
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
MESOSPHERE
NITRIC OXIDE
NITROGEN
OXYGEN
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
THERMOSPHERE
ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRA