ON THE UTILITY OF THE MOLECULAR-OXYGEN DAYGLOW EMISSIONS AS PROXIES FOR MIDDLE ATMOSPHERIC OZONE

The molecular oxygen dayglow emissions, O-2(a(1) Delta g --> X(3) Sigm a g) at 1.27 mu m and O-2(b(1) Sigma g --> X(3) Sigma g) at 762 nm, ar ise in pare from processes related to the Hartley band photolysis of o zone. It is therefore possible to derive daytime ozone concentrations from measurements of the volume emission rate of either dayglow. The a ccuracy to which the ozone concentration can be inferred depends on th e accuracy to which numerous kinetic and spectroscopic rate constants are known, including rates which describe the excitation of molecular oxygen by processes that are not related to the ozone concentration. W e find that several key rate constants must be known to better than 7% accuracy in order to achieve an inferred ozone concentration accurate to 15% from measurements of either dayglow. Currently, accuracies for various parameters typically range from 5% to 100%.