Understanding the Coupled OH Meinel and O2 Atmospheric Band Nightglow Emissions

Nightglow emission signatures observed from space- and ground-based instruments are commonly used as proxies for atmospheric composition, especially for the altitude region around 100 km that cannot be easily studied in situ. Monitoring the intensity and temporal evolution of such proxies by remote sensing is often the method of choice to study a plethora of phenomena in this region of the atmosphere. Thus, the quantitative details relevant to the production and deactivation of excited atomic and molecular precursors responsible for prominent nightglow emissions are required to study atmospheric composition, radiative and energy balance, wave propagation and dissipation, as well as transport dynamics. Significant gaps and uncertainties exist in the understanding of the above processes and, as our recent studies on nightglow emissions revealed, substantial revisions of the relevant atmospheric models are warranted.

We will present a progress report on our efforts to advance the understanding of key mesospheric nightglow emissions by investigating the recently established coupling between the OH Meinel and the O2 Atmospheric band emissions, mediated by collisions of O atoms with vibrationally excited OH.

This work is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grants AGS-2009960 and AGS-2113888.