COMPARISON OF AURORAL LIGHT EMISSION AND ELECTRON DENSITY

Simultaneous measurements of the auroral light emission and the electron density have been made during three rocket flights into auroral glow. The optical measurements were made on the (0-1) First Negative band of N2+ at 4278 Å, and the volume emission rate vs. altitude has been obtained. The electron density measurements were made by a propagation experiment based upon the Faraday rotation technique. From the observed emission rate of photons Q, the production rate of ion pairs q, is deduced, and assuming equilibrium conditions, the effective recombination coefficient α is derived as the ratio between q and the square of the electron density N. The recombination rates so derived are in fairly good agreement with laboratory measurements. © 1969.