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Title: MSG-7: atmospheric penetration of solar radiation in the range of Schumann-Runge bands

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5146234

There have been major efforts in measuring extraterrestrial solar irradiance for use in atmospheric studies. The quantity of immediate relevance to theoretical studies is the number of photons which reach a given altitude in the middle atmosphere. Current models compute the attenuated radiation field but the cross sections available for the major absorbers, O2 and O3, often come from experiments that are now quite old. Balloon measurements show some significant differences between the predicted and observed ultraviolet radiation field between 30 and 40 km. The wavelength region to be studied includes Lyman alpha plus the range 175 nm to the visible. Specific topics to be addressed are as follows: (1) the cross sections of the major absorbers, O2 and O3 including the Schumann-Runge bands as a subset (2) comparison of the in situ measurements of the attenuated radiation field with calculations and (3) the relevance of the scattered and reflected radiation fields for middle atmospheric processes.

Research Organization:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Greenbelt, MD (USA). Goddard Space Flight Center
OSTI ID:
5146234
Report Number(s):
N-85-20443
Resource Relation:
Other Information: In International Council of Scientific Unions Middle Atmosphere Program, handbook for map, vol. 7, 94 p. (N--85-20437 11-42)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English