Ultraviolet Emission Cross Sections by Electron Impact: Application to UV Dayglowand Auroral Satellite Observations

摘要

This program has developed for the Air Force a high resolution spectrometer,including EUV and FUV array detectors, which is the highest resolution single scattering instrument available in the US for the measurement of emission cross sections. Electron impact induced fluorescence studies have been made of emission spectra of atomic hydrogen and of molecular hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. Three fully operational UV emission cross section instruments, ranging in resolving power from low resolution for the atomic studies to high resolution for molecular studies, were used. For each species, a model was developed that included collision strengths in analytic form for routine addition to energy loss codes or spectral models which are then applied to model radiative/ collisional equilibrium in the earth's thermosphere. Air Force satellite and rocket programs use atomic and molecular cross sections from this program in the development of atmospheric models for the data analysis phase of missions. Examples of these flight programs are the recent analyses of the Air Force UV GLOW experiment (Strickland, 1996) and the Phillips Laboratory rocket-borne spectrometer (Eastes and Dentamaro 1996; Eastes and Sharpe, 1987).