Combined Airglow and Incoherent Scatter Observations as a Technique for Studying Neutral Atmospheric Variations

Authors

L L. Cogger
Vincent B. Wickwar, Utah State UniversityFollow
Herbert C. Carlson, Utah State University

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Radio Science

Volume

9

Issue

2

Publication Date

1974

First Page

205

Last Page

210

Abstract

Night airglow 6300 Å intensities and electron density altitude profiles observed at Arecibo have been combined with dissociative recombination theory to obtain information about the nighttime variation of F-region N₂ and O₂ densities. The application of this technique is illustrated using data from two nights in March 1971. The gross nighttime variation shows reasonable similarity to the Jacchia [1970] model, and also follows the time variation of the measured exospheric temperature. However, on both nights there is evidence of a postmidnight enhancement of the O₂/N₂ density ratio associated with a rapid decrease in the height of the F layer.

Comments

Published by American Geophysical Union in Radio Science. Publisher PDF available for download through link above.

Recommended Citation

Cogger, L. L., V. B. Wickwar, and H. C. Carlson (1974), Combined airglow and incoherent scatter observations as a technique for studying neutral atmospheric variations, Radio Sci., 9(2), 205–210, doi:10.1029/RS009i002p00205.