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MODELED AND OBSERVED N2 LYMAN-BIRGE-HOPFIELD BAND EMISSIONS IN EARTH'S DAYGLOW: A COMPARISON

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Date Issued:
2007
Abstract/Description:
Ultraviolet (UV) spectra obtained from Earth's dayglow contain important information for understanding the thermosphere, and the N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (LBH) bands are possibly the most useful emission. To be useful, a thorough understanding of how the LBH band emission varies with altitude and latitude is essential to present and future use of this emission by space-based remote sensors. Excited by photoelectron impact on N2 leading to transitions from the a 1Πg state to the ground state, the LBH emissions radiate between 1270 and 2400 Å. In addition to being populated by electron impact excitation, the a 1Πg state is populated by radiative and collisional cascading from adjacent singlet states a' 1Σu, and w 1Δu (Eastes, 2000). Ultimately, the intensity is most dependent on low energy electron flux (Ajello and Shemansky, 1985; Meier, 1991) because that is where the electron impact scattering cross sections of the singlet states are the largest. This dissertation presents modeled LBH profiles produced using the Intrasystem Cascade Excitation (ICE) model (Eastes, 2000) with photoelectron fluxes calculated using the Continuous Slowing Down (CSD) model (Jasperse, 1976). Both of these models implement the Mass Spectrometer and Incoherent Scatter (MSIS) to model an atmosphere. Modeled emissions are compared against observations by the High resolution Ionospheric and Thermospheric Spectrograph (HITS) on the Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS). This dissertation will investigate the LBH emissions in detail and ultimately use them for remote sensing of thermospheric temperatures.
Title: MODELED AND OBSERVED N2 LYMAN-BIRGE-HOPFIELD BAND EMISSIONS IN EARTH'S DAYGLOW: A COMPARISON.
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Name(s): Murray, Donald, Author
Eastes, Richard , Committee Chair
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2007
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: Ultraviolet (UV) spectra obtained from Earth's dayglow contain important information for understanding the thermosphere, and the N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (LBH) bands are possibly the most useful emission. To be useful, a thorough understanding of how the LBH band emission varies with altitude and latitude is essential to present and future use of this emission by space-based remote sensors. Excited by photoelectron impact on N2 leading to transitions from the a 1Πg state to the ground state, the LBH emissions radiate between 1270 and 2400 Å. In addition to being populated by electron impact excitation, the a 1Πg state is populated by radiative and collisional cascading from adjacent singlet states a' 1Σu, and w 1Δu (Eastes, 2000). Ultimately, the intensity is most dependent on low energy electron flux (Ajello and Shemansky, 1985; Meier, 1991) because that is where the electron impact scattering cross sections of the singlet states are the largest. This dissertation presents modeled LBH profiles produced using the Intrasystem Cascade Excitation (ICE) model (Eastes, 2000) with photoelectron fluxes calculated using the Continuous Slowing Down (CSD) model (Jasperse, 1976). Both of these models implement the Mass Spectrometer and Incoherent Scatter (MSIS) to model an atmosphere. Modeled emissions are compared against observations by the High resolution Ionospheric and Thermospheric Spectrograph (HITS) on the Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS). This dissertation will investigate the LBH emissions in detail and ultimately use them for remote sensing of thermospheric temperatures.
Identifier: CFE0001986 (IID), ucf:47422 (fedora)
Note(s): 2007-12-01
Ph.D.
Sciences, Department of Physics
Doctorate
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): LBH
Space Physics
UV
thermosphere
Dayglow
Airglow
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001986
Restrictions on Access: public
Host Institution: UCF

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