Abstract :
[en] The O2 Herzberg system in the night airglow was measured in the wavelength range 2400 to 3100 A by the S2/68 UV telescope aboard the ESRO TD-1 satellite. The statistical latitudinal variations of the slant emissional rates are analysed; auroral contamination by other emissions was eliminated from the data by monitoring the light levels in the other channels of the experiment. The slant emission rate varies from 3.5 to 15 kR, indicating an irregular structure of the atomic oxygen near the turbopause. A maximum average intensity occurrs near the tropics in the winter hemisphere. The observed emission rate is accounted for quantitatively by the three-body recombination of atmospheric oxygen using an estimated 20 per cent production efficiency for the A(3) sigma state, if quenching by N2 occurrs at the rate approximated from the relative statistical weight of the A state.
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