Collisions involving charge transfer and charged rearrangement between some of the positive ions and neutral molecules present in the earth's upper atmosphere have been investigated in a crossed beam experiment at energies within the range 2 to 200 eV. The charged reaction products are identified in a mass spectrometer, and absolute cross sections for their production are obtained. Interpolation between these values and those obtained at thermal energy in afterglow experiments provides information on the variation of the cross sections with energy in the intervening energy interval. The influence of excited ions is examined in some detail.
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