A Vib~tional Analysis of the O2 Herzberg I System Using Rocket

An observation of the u.v. nightglow between 2670 and 3040 A was conducted aver White Sands Missile Range on 22 October 1984. A l/4 m spectrometer operating at 3.5 A resolution viewed the Earth’s limb at tangent heights between 90 and 110 km for 120 s. A total of 41 spectral scans of the ~ght~ow were obtained with the brightest feature being the Oz (A%: -X3X;) He&erg I bands. The data were sorted into two groups, one from the top side of the layer and one containing the emission peak, and compared with synthetic spectra. The deduced O2 (A%:) vibrational distributions indicate that at low altitudes, the higher vibrational levels (0 > 6) were relatively depleted ; however, the ma~itude of the vibrational shift is much less than that predicted from theories of vibrational relaxation. It is shown that increasing the electronic quenching of O2 (A%:) with respect to the vibrational quenching can reduce the vibrational shift in the model and aual~tativeiv exolain the observations; however, several details of the vibrational distribution are not well’reproduceb. *