Twilight Airglow Measurements of the OH and O2 Bands by Means of Balloon-Borne Instruments

Abstract

A gondola carrying a grating spectrometer for the 1–2 μ region and filter photometers with pass bands at 1.27 μ and 1.66 μ was flown from Fort Churchill. The equipment was maintained at a height of 42 km through evening and morning twilights. The variation of the O2 IR atmospheric band at 1.27 μ was measured for morning and evening high latitude summer twilight. The evening decay was faster than predicted theoretically. An experimental value of 80 ± 15 obtained for the intensity ratio between the 0,0 and 0,1 IR atmospheric bands. A measurement of the morning and evening twilight variation of the 5,3 OH band was obtained