[en] Sounding rocket measurements conducted in 1988 under high solar activity conditions revealed that the intensity of thermospheric OI emissions at 98.9 nm present an anomalous vertical profile, showing exospheric intensities much higher than expected from radiative transfer model results, which included the known sources of excited oxygen. All attempts based on modeling of the photochemical processes and radiative transfer were unable to account for the higher than predicted brightnesses. More recently, the SOHO-SUMER instrument measured the UV solar flux at high spectral resolution, revealing the importance of a significant additional source of oxygen emission at 98.9 nm that had not been accounted for before. In this study, we simulate the radiative transfer of the OI-98.9 nm multiplet, including the photochemical sources of excited oxygen, the resonant scattering of solar photons, and the effects of non-thermal atoms, i.e. a population of fast-moving oxygen atoms in excess of the Maxwellian distribution. Including resonance scattering of the 98.9 nm solar multiplet, we find good agreement with the previous sounding rocket observation. The inclusion of a nonthermal oxygen population with a consistent increase of the total density produces a larger intensity at high altitude that apparently better accounts for the observation, but such a correction cannot be demonstrated given the uncertainties of the observations. A good agreement between model and sounding rocket observation is also found with the triplet at 130.4 nm. We further investigate the radiative transfer of the OI-98.9 nm multiplet, and the oxygen emissions at 130.4 and 135.6 nm using observations from the STP78-1 satellite. We find a less satisfying agreement between the model and the STP78-1 data that can be accounted for by scaling the modelled intensity within a range acceptable given the uncertainties on the STP78-1 absolute calibration.
Disciplines :
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Author, co-author :
Hubert, Benoît ; Université de Liège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Labo de physique atmosphérique et planétaire (LPAP)
Gérard, Jean-Claude ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO)
Shematovich, Valery I.; Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Bisikalo, Dmitri V.; Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Chakrabarti, Supriya; University of Massachusetts > Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology
Gladstone, George Randall; Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, USA
Language :
English
Title :
Nonthermal radiative transfer of oxygen 98.9 nm ultraviolet emission: Solving an old mystery
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