Observations of limb radiance with Cryogenic Spectral Infrared Rocket Experiment

A Spectral Infrared Rocket Experiment was launched from Poker Flat, Alaska, on September 28, 1977, to measure infrared emission spectra from the earth limb atmosphere. Spectrometers measured emission spectra from 1.40 to 16.5 µm during 12 vertical scans of the limb region (tangent heights 0 to 250 km) traversing the night, terminator, and day sectors of the limb atmosphere. The spectrometers were cryogenically cooled and telescoped for out-of-field rejection of the more intense radiation from lower altitudes. High-quality spectra were obtained with clearly identifiable features of CO2, O3, NO, OH, H2O, NO2, HNO3, and O2, as well as Rayleigh scattering. Spectra and tangent height emission profiles of selected species are presented and compared with theoretical emission models including those of Degges and Smith (Limb Model) and LOWTRAN 4. The salient findings are as follows: At a height of 80 km, CO2 daytime emission from fluorescence around 4.3 µm was almost 2 orders of magnitude greater than the nighttime emission. At 15 µm the CO2 radiance profiles showed little day-night differences but exhibited an unexpected radiance plateau between 95 and 110 km. The ozone peak radiance at 9.6 µm (ν3) showed order of magnitude day-night differences above 70 km tangent height showing a decrease in concentration of O3 during daytime due to photodissociation. The observed radiance in the 9- to 12-µm wavelength region exhibited evidence of chemiluminescent emission from hot bands of O3. NO (Δυ = 1) peak radiance at 5.3 µm, due to O atom excitation, is a broad maximum at 120 km tangent height. The nighttime OH fundamental (Δυ = 1) and overtone (Δυ = 2) emissions showed extensive radiation from higher vibrational levels. The daytime 2.7-µm fluorescent radiation was composed of emission from both H2O and CO2. Emission from NO2 at 6.15 µm (ν3) was observed at night only but was clearly identifiable amid the H2O (ν2) spectrum. Measured radiation in the 6.3-µm vibrational band of water vapor at 60 and 70 km agrees with the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory non-local thermodynamic equilibrium Limb Model using mixing ratios of 5 and 1.5 parts per million by volume, respectively. The radiance from O2 (a¹Δg) at 1.58 µm was observable from tangent heights of 30 to 80 km in the daytime only and shows a critical dependence upon the solar elevation angle. As expected, Rayleigh scattering was the dominant daytime source of radiation between 1 and 3 µm in the limb atmosphere for tangent heights of up to 40 km.