Observations of 63 μm atomic oxygen emission in the earth's atmosphere from balloon altitudes: Astronomical implications

Abstract Measurements of 3 P 1 → 3 P 2 63 μm atomic oxygen (OI) emission in the earth's atmosphere obtained with a balloon-borne telescope and high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometer are presented. Three results emerge from analysis of this data: (i) the frequency of the OI 3 P 1 → 3 P 2 transition was determined to be 158.2693 ± 0.003 cm −1 ; (ii) the integrated line intensity of the atmospheric OI emission was determined to be 2.4 ± 0.5 · 10 −5 W m −2 sr −1 ; and (iii) the integrated line intensity of the atmospheric OI emission was found to be constant over a range of zenith angles corresponding to air-mass values between 1.27 and > 20. The implications of these results on astronomical observations of OI emission are discussed.