AIRGLOW

Matteo Perrotta – 2014

Airglow from ISS
 History
The airglow phenomenon was first identified in 1868 by Swedish
scientist Anders Ångström.
Since then, it has been studied in the laboratory, and various
chemical reactions have been observed to emit electromagnetic
energy as part of the process. Scientists have identified some of
those processes that would be present in Earth's atmosphere, and
astronomers have verified that such emissions are present.
The distinction between airglow emissions that are permanently
present all over the globe, on the one hand, and polar lights (aurora)
on the other hand, which are only occasionally observed outside
their high latitude "home", was only made in the 1920s by Robert
John Strutt, the fourth Baron Rayleigh.
Lord Rayleigh talked of "permanent aurora", and the term "airglow"
was introduced later by Otto Struve and Sidney .
Molecules of OH and O2 were identified by Meinel (in 1950) as the
sources of the most important airglow emissions with bands that
together cover much of the visible and near infrared spectrum.
 Definition
Airglow is a photochemical luminescence (or chemiluminescence)
arising from chemical reactions in the upper atmosphere. Many of
these reactions leave molecules and atoms in excited states from
which they can radiate at certain well-defined wavelengths. Emissions
from molecular oxygen O2, atomic oxygen O, sodium Na, and the
hydroxyl radical OH are especially prominent, and measurements of
airglow intensity by spectrometric techniques have provided a great
deal of information about upper-atmospheric dynamics and
chemistry.
The source of the chemical energy is ultraviolet sunlight and X-
radiation.

Chemiluminescence = the conversion of chemical energy into light

(ultraviolet, visible or infrared)
 Spectrum

Radiation emitted from these molecules and atoms can be observed

in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelength of
sodium emissions is approximately 590 nm, so they appear yellow-
orange. The wavelengths of emissions from OH and molecular oxygen,
however, span wide bands ranging from about 650 to 700 nm (red)
and 380 to 490 nm (violet to blue), respectively. In contrast, atomic
oxygen emissions occur at three distinct wavelengths located at 508
nm (green), 629 nm (orange-red), and 632 nm (red) within the
electromagnetic spectrum.
 Layers
• The red radiation of atomic oxygen is from a lower energy excited state whose
radiative half-life is an immensely long, 110 seconds. This red airglow is only
found at 150 - 300 km where collisions are so infrequent that the excited atoms
have time to radiate away their energy.
• There are weak blue emissions from excited molecular oxygen at 95 km.
• The yellow light from sodium atoms is in a layer at 92 km
• The brightest emission is green light from oxygen atoms in a layer 90-100 km
high. The emission layer is clearly visible from earth orbit.
• Vibrationally and rotationally excited
OH radicals (OH radicals are created
by the combination of ozone and
hydrogen) emit red (image) and infra-
red in a narrow layer (6-10 km
FWHM) centered at ~ 86-87 km
 Instability
Airglow is not always uniform. It can have bands and patches which shift and
vary over minutes. Gravity waves propagating from the lower atmosphere
modulate the atmospheric density, temperature and composition at airglow
altitudes and thus the airglow intensity (90-100km)
In April 2012, waves in Earth’s “airglow” spread across the nighttime skies of
Texas like ripples in a pond. In this case, the waves were provoked by a
massive thunderstorm.
 Science applications
The observation of airglow features by spectroscopic methods is a widely used method
for the determination of upper mesospheric parameters, especially rotational
temperatures and airglow intensities.
First world-wide coordinated cooperation of the different global-distributed airglow
observation sites under the umbrella of a global measurement network (NDMC) were
achieved following a founding initiative of the German Aerospace Center (DLR-DFD) in
2006. Network operations of the NDMC have officially started in 2007 and are jointly
coordinated by the DLR-DFD and the Argentinean organization CONICET accompanied
by an international management team with representatives of the airglow community
from Argentina, Australia, Germany, Norway and USA.
 Swiss Cube
The payload consists of a telescope which takes images of the airglow emissions.
In a first phase airglow emissions shall be observed at different regions and under
different angles of observation. These measurements will provide a first idea of
expected minimum, maximum and mean intensities of airglow emissions during both
day and night. Furthermore, it will allow analyzing background radiation due to
scattered sun- or moonlight. The first observation phase shall last 3 months. During this
period, 20 images of the airglow shall be taken. In a second phase only observations of
airglow emissions at limb between 50 and 120 km shall be carried out. Since they
constitute the basis for a new low-cost earth sensor, their variation in intensity has to
be studied more carefully. Hence, the variation of emission intensity depending on
latitude can be observed over a longer period.
 Airglow in other planets
• The Venus Express spacecraft contains an infrared sensor which has
detected near-IR emissions from the upper atmosphere of Venus.
The emissions come from nitric oxide (NO) and from molecular
oxygen.

At high altitudes in the atmosphere, on the day-side, the strong flux of ultraviolet radiation coming from the
Sun breaks the molecules of carbon dioxide (CO2) present in large quantities in the atmosphere, liberating
oxygen atoms. These atoms are then transported by the so-called sub-solar and anti-solar atmospheric
circulation towards the night-side of the planet. Here the atoms migrate from the high atmosphere to a
lower layer, called mesosphere, where they recombine into oxygen (O2).
By doing this, they emit light at specific wavelengths (strongest in the infrared).
• Mariner 6 and 7 made two observations of the limb of Mars during
the fly-bys, the first by looking ahead and the second by looking
perpendicular to the flight direction. Starting at 200 km, airglow
emissions appeared in the spectral channel 190 to 400 um. The
strongest spectral features were from carbon monoxide and ionized
carbon dioxide, in addition, a spectral emission from atomic oxygen
appeared. All of these emissions were the result of the action of
solar ultraviolet radiation on carbon dioxide. These observations
showed that carbon dioxide was the major constituent of the
atmosphere. The measurement of the intensity of the airglow
emissions as a function of altitude gave the scale height that was
used to determine that the temperature of the upper atmosphere
was 350 K
Airglow from Earth

Tre cime di Lavaredo, Alps, Italy

Las Campanas Observatory, Atacama desert, Chile
Crater Lake, Oregon, USA