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U.S. Department of Energy
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Research into artificially induced atmospheric disturbances. Scientific report No. 1

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:91479
A detailed chemical kinetics model describing the interaction of an electron beam with the atmosphere is used to study the effects of the reaction of translationally hot N(4S) atoms with O2 on NO formation and emission during the EXCEDE III artificially auroral experiment. The rate constants and vibrational distributions for rotationally hot NO are obtained from extensive quasiclassical trajectory calculations for the N(4S) + O2 reaction using realistic ab initio potential energy surfaces. It is shown that a quantitative description of rotationally thermal and hot NO emission observed in EXCEDE III requires the inclusion of hyperthermal N atom chemistry in the chemical kinetics model. This analysis provides the first quantitative evidence of the importance of hyperthermal N(4S) and N(2D) atoms in the formation of vibrationally and rotationally excited NO. Excellent agreement between the chemical kinetics model developed for EXCEDE and the vibrational populations derived from the interferometer data is obtained under conditions of thermalization of nitrogen atoms (i.e., at 103 km under max dose conditions). Analysis of the vibrational populations from the interferometer under other conditions indicate that hyperthermal N(2D) atoms.
Research Organization:
Spectral Sciences, Inc., Burlington, MA (United States)
OSTI ID:
91479
Report Number(s):
AD-A--290150/2/XAB; SSI-TR--246; CNN: Contract F19628-93-C-0052
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English