Excitation and Deexcitation of Vibration in N2 by Oxygen Atoms
Abstract
The earth's upper atmosphere continuously emits infrared radiation. It has been suggested that some of this radiation is powered by the energy stored in vibrationally excited nitrogen and that this is produced when nitrogen quenches O(singlet D). In this reaction the 1.96 eV electronic excitation of O(singlet D) is transferred to vibrational and rotational energy of the nitrogen and kinetic energy. However, no measurements of the fraction which appears as vibrational energy have been made. One of the tasks of the current program was to determine this fraction using Raman spectroscopy to determine the populations of the vibrational levels of nitrogen that are produced. In the E-region of the earth's atmosphere, however, deeexcitation of N2(vib) will probably be dominated by collisional quenching by electrons in the lower E-region and vibrational- translational energy exchange with O(triplet P) in the upper E-region. The reaction rate for the latter process is not known for temperatures found in the earth's atmosphere. The shock tube is now fully instrumented, and preliminary measurements are underway.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 07, 1970
- Accession Number
- AD0715796
Entities
People
- Donald C. Lorents
- Donald J. Eckstrom
- Graham Black
Organizations
- SRI International