Articles | Volume 7, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-7-317-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-7-317-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Neutral temperature and atmospheric water vapour retrieval from spectral fitting of auroral and airglow emissions
Joshua M. Chadney
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, Southampton, UK
Daniel K. Whiter
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, Southampton, UK
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A layer of excited OH molecules in the upper atmosphere produces strong airglow emission from which it is possible to obtain the temperature of the layer. To obtain accurate temperatures values, one must take into account the absorption of OH emission by water vapour in the lower atmosphere before this emission is measured by instruments on the ground. This paper provides the amount of absorption suffered by each OH line due to water vapour and presents a method to estimate water concentrations.
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Short summary
We measure spectra of upper atmospheric emissions in optical wavelengths using the High Throughput Imaging Echelle Spectrograph (HiTIES) located on Svalbard. These spectra contain superposed emissions originating from different altitudes. In this paper, we describe a fitting method which allows us to separate the measured emissions, thus allowing us to measure neutral temperatures at different altitudes and the density of water vapour in the atmosphere above the instrument.
We measure spectra of upper atmospheric emissions in optical wavelengths using the High...