Simulation and observation for volume emission rates emitted from O2(0-1) and O(1S) nightglow in northwest China

Being susceptible to the change of atmospheric conditions, the volume emission rate (VER) is very suitable to be used as a light source by passive remote sensing for measuring atmospheric wind and temperature. Thus, the VERs emitted from O2(0‐1) and O(S1) of the nightglow at 80–120 km are studied in this paper. Based on the Naval Research Laboratory Mass Spectrometer Incoherent Scatter (NRLMSISE-00) model data and the ground-based airglow imaging interferometer (GBAII) instrument observation for a local time and place, simulated VER profiles represented by four layers are obtained for the nightglow of O2(0‐1) and O(S1). The O2(0‐1) nightglow model peak values at 94 km on 6 December 2013 and 8 November 2011 are 8111  photons·cm−3·s−1 and 8406  photons·cm−3·s−1, respectively; however, the O(S1) VER peak at a higher altitude of about 96 km on 18 December 2011 is only 338  photons·cm−3·s−1. The upper atmospheric VER values have been derived to transfer into the ground–based detected column intensities by our GBAII prototype. The calculated column integrated emission rates (IERs) of O2(0‐1) for 0° and 45° zenith angles are 1.48×107 and 1.91×107  photons·cm−2·s−1, respectively; the calculated column IERs of O(S1) are 5.53×105 and 7.03×105  photons·cm−2·s−1, respectively. Correspondingly, the detected column IERs obtained by GBAII are 2.43×107 for O2(0‐1) and 6.57×105  photons·cm−2·s−1 for O(S1).