Astronaut Scientific Debriefings, 1962-1963

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LOB ALAMOS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY
UNIVltRelTV 01" CAL.ll"ORNIA
LOe AL.AM09, NltW MUICO
Dr. Jocelyn Gill
DATB a
July 13, 1962
(20d)
X4 • 7 .8·x 106 cm
(20e)
Absorbers Present in the Upper Atmosphere
'lliree constituents of the atmosphere near 100 km altitude absorb light through
most or •all of,the visible range, as would be re_quired to get a noticeable d1mm1ng
of starlight.
They are:
l)
2)
N~
-
0
(nitrogen peroxide)
(negative atomic oxygen ion)
v
3)
02
(negative molecular oxygen ion)
Of these, I found no cross section data for o;.· For 0-, Massey (Negative Ions;
Cambridge U. Press) gives curves showing absorption cross sections starting at
•
•
-l.8
•
.
•
5620 A and approaching~ 4 x 10
cm2 /ion 1n the region A< 5000 A. 'lb.ere is
•
very little structure (only the onset at 5620 A).
From ecpation (17) we find that
~3 ± 2
l.7
N3(0-) •
_
(7.5 ± 5) X 10
18 •
4 X 10
could explain the observed attenuation.
x 1010
For an effective path length of 5.4 x 107 cm, we have Po• (1.4 ± 1)
negative ions/crn.3 •
Since the daytime free electron concentration in the E layer is 1.5 x 105 and
the night vallle is~ 104 it seems-hard to believe such a high nighttime concentration
•
of negative atomic ions.