PRELIMINARY-RESULTS FROM THE BERKELEY EUV AIRGLOW ROCKET SPECTROMETER - O I AND N2 FUV/EUV DAYGLOW IN THE THERMOSPHERE AND LOWER EXOSPHERE

The Berkeley extreme-ultraviolet airglow rocket spectrometer (BEARS) made spectroscopic measurements of far and extreme UV, atomic oxygen emissions from a Black Brant XII (12.041 WT) sounding rocket launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, on September 30, 1988. BEARS' primary instrument, a near-normal Rowland mount spectrometer, measured several atomic oxygen and molecular nitrogen dayglow features at high spectral resolution (1.5 angstrom): O I (989, 1027, 1304, and 1356 angstrom); and N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (4,0) and (3,0) bands at 1325 and 1354 angstrom. The instrument collected over 800 s of data spanning altitudes of 150-963 km with look directions between 95-degrees and 125-degrees from zenith. We have analyzed the data using electron and radiative transport models in a forward modeling approach. The model and data are generally in good agreement. However, there are some discrepancies, which are discussed in terms of remote sensing capabilities and improvements to the models. In particular, the data indicate an optically thick cascade contribution of 40% to the O I (1304 angstrom) emission. There is a significant contribution to the O I (1027 angstrom) feature due to Lyman beta resonant scattering and an inconsistency in the modeled and measured intensities in the lower thermosphere.