A Study of Ultraviolet Emissions from the Oxides of Carbon in the Mesosphere and Shuttle Environment.
Abstract
This study seeks to determine if carbon oxide (CO, CO(+), CO2(+)) ultraviolet emissions in the mesosphere are observable, thus presenting an alternate method of determining the concentrations of these species. By developing photochemical models for CO(+) and CO2(+) it is shownthat the concentration levels of CO(+) and CO2(;) are not adequate to produce UV band emissions bright enough to be detectable by spectrometric instruments. For CO, actual measurements of the concentrations were used in conjunction with g-factors to predict volume emission rates. These predictions indicate that only the CO fourth positive bands will be bright enough to measure by optical techniques. Mesospheric ultraviolet spectra obtained by the Imaging Spectrometric Observatory (ISO) on the Spacelab 1 Mission are examined for the presence of the CO fourth positive bands and several bands are identified which are believed to be CO fourth positive. The CO fourth positive 1-6 band is used to calculate a density height profile for mesospheric CO. These calculations closely agree with measurements by others for mesospheric CO. This band system provides a viable method for measuring CO in the 80 km to 110 km altitude region. A second study objective is to investigate whether carbon oxide emissions are found in the induced shuttle environment. CO2 is one of the major products of shuttle engine exhaust and carbon materials are found to undergo significant mass loss on orbit. While several molecular band-like features are found in the data, these appear to be intermittent and at times have the characteristics of point sources and so may be due to particulates or stars rather than exhaust plumes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA166376
Entities
People
- Robert P. Tomic
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology