Articles | Volume 15, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-1661-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-1661-2015
Technical note
 | 
17 Feb 2015
Technical note |  | 17 Feb 2015

Technical Note: On the possibly missing mechanism of 15 μm emission in the mesosphere–lower thermosphere (MLT)

R. D. Sharma

Related subject area

Subject: Radiation | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling | Altitude Range: Mesosphere | Science Focus: Chemistry (chemical composition and reactions)
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Cited articles

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Bougher, S. W., Hunten, D. M., and Roble, R. G.: CO2 cooling in the terrestrial planet thermospheres, J. Geophys. Res. 99, 14609–14622, 1994.
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Burtt, K. D. and Sharma, R. D.: Near-resonant energy transfer from vibrationally excited OH to N2, J. Chem. Phys., 128, 124311, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2884343, 2008a.
Burtt, K. D. and Sharma, R. D.: Near-resonant energy transfer from vibrationally excited OH(v), v=9, 8, 1 to CO2, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L18102, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL035204, 2008b.
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Short summary
This paper investigates the discrepancy between the rate coefficients for the deactivation of the bending mode of CO2 by atomic oxygen, a process of great importance in the energy budget of the mesosphere and the lower thermosphere, measured in the laboratory and arrived at by space-based measurements. It is concluded that super-thermal rotational levels of N2, produced by the impact of hot O atoms or by N + NO reaction, have the potential to provide the unknown mechanism.
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