The Space Shuttle Glow.

Abstract

Photographic pictures of the shuttle glow were analyzed. Radiative lifetime of the emitting species was found to be 0.7 msec by analyzing the spatial distribution of the glow intensity. The Atmospheric Explorer (AE) glow under daytime conditions has been examined. The glow was more intense in the daytime, but the production efficiency, measured in Rayleighs per oxygen atom, was found to be similar to the nighttime value. No dependence of the glow intensity on the ambient density was found. The production efficiency increased with time throughout the duration of the satellite in orbit. Keywords: Shuttle glow; Radiative lifetime; AE-Glow; Day-night variation; Satellite lifetime dependence; Plasma environment dependence.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 17, 1984
Accession Number
ADA154937

Entities

People

  • A. Dalgarno

Organizations

  • Harvard College Observatory

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Airglow
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Detectors
  • Efficiency
  • Electron Density
  • Electrons
  • Environment
  • Fabry Perot Interferometers
  • Measurement
  • Oxygen
  • Production
  • Solar Activity
  • Space Shuttles
  • Spacecraft
  • Spatial Distribution
  • Spectra

Readers

  • Plasma Physics.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster
  • Space - Orbital Debris