Sounding Rocket Chemical Release Experiment to Measure the Vibrational Temperature of Nitrogen in the Upper Atmosphere

摘要

The feasibility of determining the vibrational temperature of molecular nitrogen in the high atmosphere by the technique of chemical release of gaseous hydrogen iodide (HI) from a sounding rocket with ground observation of the HI first overtone radiation is considered in detail. An outline of an envisioned experiment is given, the effects of condensation and shock heating from the rapid pressure expansion of the released gas into the low-pressure atmosphere are considered, a solution of the complex problem of the diffusion of the expanded gas cloud into the atmosphere with allowance for vibrational energy transfer reactions between HI and N2 and the chemical reaction between HI and O is made, and the effects of the chemical reaction chain initiated by the HI + O reaction are considered. (Author)