Application of Visible Monochromatic Auroral Imaging Data for Modeling Infrared Earth-Limb Morphology

摘要

A statistically comprehensive first-order auroral earth-limb data base at 2.7 and 4.3 microns is constructed from an existing 4278 and 6300 A, ground-based, all-sky TV data base, which includes approximately 200 hours of all-sky auroral data that are stored on video tape. Methods of modeling 2.7- and 4.3-micro auroral emissions on the basis of measurements of the aurora in the spectral regions (4278 A) and (6300 A) have been developed and verified against infrared data. 2.7-micron emission is modeled by the N(D2) + O2 yields NO + O mechanism. The 4.3-micron emission is modeled by two mechanisms, a relatively slower (5 to 25 min response time) mechanism due to emission by CO2, and a weaker but fast (1 to 10 s) mechanism that is indicated by the auroral data obtained 26 October 1978. In this effort, approximately 30 min of real-time auroral all-sky video data from each of the events 3/23/73 and 3/27/73 were digitized. The digitized data from the 3/23/73 event were used to construct a dynamic 2-dimensional model of auroral 2.7 and 4.3 micron earth-limb radiance over the 30 min observation period. It is seen that structure is more prominent for the relatively fast 2.7- and 4.3-micron mechanisms than for the slower CO2 4.3-micron mechanism. (Author)