Dr. Smith et M. Ahmadjian, OBSERVATION OF NITRIC-OXIDE ROVIBRATIONAL BAND HEAD EMISSIONS IN THE QUIESCENT AIRGLOW DURING THE CIRRIS-1A SPACE-SHUTTLE EXPERIMENT, Geophysical research letters, 20(23), 1993, pp. 2679-2682
Band head emissions from highly rotationally excited NO (v,J) (J almos
t-equal-to 90) have been observed in the quiescent atmosphere at tange
nt heights between approximately 115 and 190 km for both sunlit and ni
ghttime conditions. The data were obtained by the cryogenic CIRRIS-1A
interferometer which was operated on-board the space shuttle between 2
8 and 30 April 1991. Up to ten emission features between 2020 and 1744
cm-1 in the earthlimb spectra have been identified as the R-branch ba
nd heads of the NO DELTAv = 1 sequence for the vibrational states v' =
1 - 10. The presence of these band heads requires a very high degree
of rotational excitation corresponding to rotational energy in excess
of 1.4 eV. These are the first observations of emissions from highly r
otationally excited NO in the quiescent airglow and they parallel the
recent discovery of highly excited pure rotational transitions of OH i
n the airglow for both nighttime and daytime quiescent conditions.