Effects of temperature dependence of reaction N2 (A3

Abstract. The greenline dayglow emission profiles mea-sured by the Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII) on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) are modelled using recently proposed revisions to the temperature depen-dent rate coefficient of the reaction N2 (A3 u)+ O in the glow model. The volume emission rates of greenline day-glow emissions are calculated using the Hinteregger et al. (1981) and Tobiska (1991) solar flux models. It is found that the average modelled profiles obtained using the Hinteregger et al. (1981) solar flux model with the temperature depen-dent rate coefficient and a quantum yield of 0.36 for the re-action N2 (A3 u)+ O agree to within 8 % of the observed profiles in the thermospheric peak region, which shows sig-nificant improvement over the earlier results (20 % smaller than WINDII results) obtained using the temperature inde-pendent reaction rate coefficient. On the other hand, the av-erage modelled profiles obtained with a temperature depen-dent rate coefficient in the Tobiska (1991) solar flux model are about 12 % higher than the WINDII results, whereas with the temperature independent rate coefficient the results are about 10 % smaller than the WINDII results in the thermo-spheric peak region. The present study reveals that the emis-sion profiles obtained using the Hinteregger et al. (1981) so-lar flux model, along with the temperature dependent rate coefficient and a quantum yield of 0.36 for the reaction N2 (A3 ∑+u)+ O in glow model, reproduce the thermospheric emission peak as observed by WINDII, a capability which eluded earlier models. These findings support the newly dis-covered temperature dependence of the rate coefficient of re-action N2 (A3 u) with O. Key words. Ionosphere (ionization mechanisms; modeling and forecasting; general or miscellaneous)