Study of the Earth’s Own Radiation of the Upper Atmosphere (Herzberg I Bands) as a Function of Solar Activity, Atmospheric Temperature, and Seasons of the Year

Abstract

The processes of excitation and quenching of electronically excited molecular oxygen O₂(${{{\text{A}}}^{3}}\Sigma _{{\text{u}}}^{ + }$) in the Earth’s atmosphere at nightglow sky heights are considered. The Herzberg I bands in the range of 250–360 nm have a wide spectrum of luminescence in the nightglow of the Earth. The volume intensity profiles of the Herzberg I bands of molecular oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere are calculated at night using data from a semiempirical model of the temperature response of the middle atmosphere depending on altitude, season, and solar activity at the Earth’s midlatitudes. The calculations of the luminescence intensities of the Herzberg I bands are compared with the experimental data obtained from the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-53) and from standard SP-48, SP-49, and SP-50 spectrographs from the 1950s–1960s. It is shown that the calculation results are in good agreement with the experimental data obtained from both the space shuttle and ground-based observations.