Simulations of gravity wave‐induced variations of the OH(8,3), O2(0,1), and O(1S) airglow emissions in the MLT region

We investigate gravity wave-induced airglow intensity variations of the OH(8,3), O2(0,1) atmospheric band, and O(1S) greenline emissions in the mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) region with two two-dimensional, time-dependent, nonlinear models—an OH Chemistry-Dynamics model and a Multiple Airglow Chemistry-Dynamics model. Our simulation results of the wave effects by a small-scale 30 km wave packet show that it induces an ~22% secular increase in the OH(8,3) airglow intensity, a 30% increase in the O2(0,1) atmospheric band, and a 33% increase in the O(1S) greenline. The largest wave-induced airglow intensity fluctuation amplitude is seen in the OH(8,3) emission (~2.4%), followed by the O2(0,1) atmospheric band and O(1S) greenline with comparable maximum wave-induced airglow intensity fluctuation amplitudes of 1%. Our study also shows that the production of atmospheric bands and O(1S) strongly depends on the rate coefficients in the three-body recombination reactions.