11-year solar cycle influence on OH (3-1) nightglow observed by OSIRIS
Journal article, 2022

In the mesosphere, the vibrationally excited hydroxyl layer is sensitive to changes in incoming solar flux. An enhanced photodissociation of molecular oxygen will lead to more atomic oxygen production, thus we expect the OH layer emission rate to be positively with the Lyman-α flux and the emission height to be negatively correlated. The Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imager System (OSIRIS) has recorded the Meinel band centred at 1.53 μm from 2001 to 2015. In this study, we show how the 11-year solar cycle signature manifests itself in this data set, in terms of OH zenith emission rate and emission height. As expected, the emission height is negatively correlated with the Lyman-α flux at all latitudes. The zenith emission rate is positively correlated with the Lyman-α flux at most latitudes except near the equator. By the means of a time dependent photochemical model, we show that the changing local time sampling of the Odin satellite was the cause of the observed distortion of the solar cycle signature near the equator.

11-year solar cycle

Hydroxyl layer

Airglow

Author

Anqi Li

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Geoscience and Remote Sensing

Donal Murtagh

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Geoscience and Remote Sensing

A. E. Bourassa

University of Saskatchewan

D. A. Degenstein

University of Saskatchewan

C. Roth

University of Saskatchewan

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics

1364-6826 (ISSN)

Vol. 229 105831

Subject Categories

Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Physical Geography

DOI

10.1016/j.jastp.2022.105831

More information

Latest update

2/22/2022