Excitation and Quenching of the Oxygen Bands in the Nightglow

摘要

Termolecular association in some instances followed by an energy transfer process (Young and Sharpless, 1963) like is the main source of the excited oxygen molecules that contribute to the terrestrial nightglow. The present paper is confined to aspects of this source and will not consider the supplementary sources of relatively minor importance that have been suggested for the Atmospheric system (cf. Witt et al., 1979; Krasnopolsky, 1986) and the Infrared Atmospheric system (cf. Llewellyn and Solheim, 1978; McDade et al., 1987; Lopez-Moreno et al., 1988). Oxygen, Reprints. (mjm)