Includes copies of articles co-authored by the author during the preparation of this thesis. Includes bibliographical references. Electronic publication; full text available in PDF format; abstract in HTML format. A three-field photometer was employed at the University of Adelaide's Buckland Park field site to collect optical observations of the 557.7nm OI and 730nm OH airglow emissions on an almost continuous basis since May 1995 to May 2000, with observations made whenever the moon was not up. Electronic reproduction.[Australia] :Australian Digital Theses Program,2001.

vii, 200 leaves : ill ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, 1989

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Earth and Space Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 207-226). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR19846

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Earth and Space Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-148). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=1251892871&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1195659544&clientId=5220

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The connection between earth and space weather has numerous impacts on spacecraft, radio communications and GPS signals. Thus, predicted & modeling this region is important, yet models (both empirical and first principles) do a poor job of characterizing the variability of this region. One of the main objectives of the NASA ICON mission is to measure the variability of the ionosphere and thermosphere at low-mid latitudes. The MIGHTI instrument on ICON is a Doppler Interferometer that measures the horizontal wind speed and direction with 2 discrete MIGHTI units, separated by 90˚, mounted on the ICON Payload Interface Plate. This work focuses on building a simulation of wind interferometer data, similar to MIGHTI, using a first-principles model as the input dataset, which will be used for early validation and comparison to the MIGHTI data. Using a ray-tracing approach, parameters like O, O2, O+, O2+, T, wind, solar F10.7 index will be read for every point along every ray from the model and brightness and Line of Sight (LOS) wind will be calculated as functions of altitude and time. These data will be compared to the MIGHTI observations to both to establish the limitation of such models, and to validate the ICON data. ICON will help determine the physics of our space environment and pave the way for mitigating its effects on our technology, communications systems and society. However, ICON is yet to launch and due to the unavailability of MIGHTI data, we have selected another instrument called WINDII (Wind Imaging Interferometer) from a different mission UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite) to demonstrate the utility of this data-model comparison. Similar to MIGHTI, WINDII measures Doppler shifts from a suite of visible region airglow and measures zonal and meridian winds, temperature, and VER (Volume Emission rate) in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere (80 to 300 km) from observations of the Earth's airglow. We will use a similar approach discussed for MIGHTI to calculate vertical profile of Redline airglow, Wind velocity, emission rate and compare them with our simulated results to validate our algorithm. We initially thought asymmetry calculation along the Line of Sight (LOS) would be the limiting factor. We believe there are other things going on such as variability in the winds associated with natural fluctuations in the thermosphere, atmospheric waves, inputs from the sun and the atmosphere below etc., appear to be bigger factor than just asymmetry along the line of sight. / The upper Earth atmosphere host’s most of the valuable spacecraft’s and almost all the communication signals go through this portion of the atmosphere. Yet we do not understand what causes variation in the upper atmosphere. In order to answer what’s causing these changes and to understand this complicated region, NASA has developed the ICON mission. ICON we will mainly study the Ionosphere ranging from 90 to 450 km above the earth surface. In this study have developed a tool able to simulate thermospheric wind profiles, O, O2, O+, O2+ densities, Volume emission rate (VER) of green and red line airglow from measurements on the NASA Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission from an instrument on board called MIGHTI. However, ICON is yet to launch so do not have MIGHTI to test our algorithm. We chose an instrument which is similar to MIGHTI called Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII), from a different mission called Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) to test our algorithm. We initially thought asymmetry calculation along the Line of Sight (LOS) would be the limiting factor. We believe there are other things going on such as variability in the winds associated with natural fluctuations in the thermosphere, atmospheric waves, inputs from the sun and the atmosphere below etc., appear to be bigger factor than just asymmetry along the line of sight.

Thesis (Ph.D. 1974) from the Dept. of Physics, University of Adelaide.

Les émissions ultraviolettes des atmosphères de Vénus et de Mars, couramment appelées airglows, sont des phénomènes lumineux qui proviennent de relaxations d'atomes et de molécules passant d'un état excité à un état d'énergie inférieure. Ceux-ci nous renseignent sur les densités des constituants intervenant dans les réactions chimiques des atmosphères, ainsi que sur la dynamique des mésosphères respectives. Cette thèse traite de l'analyse détaillée de ces phénomènes dont le signal a été détecté entre 118 et 320 nm par les instruments SPICAV et SPICAM à bord des satellites Venus Express et Mars Express. Afin de bien comprendre le sujet abordé, les deux planètes, les différents airglows analysés et les instruments sont abordés dans une introduction constituant le premier chapitre de ce travail. Le chapitre 2 est consacré aux outils numériques qui servent à l'analyse et à la modélisation des airglows. Les trois chapitres suivants sont dédiés à leur caractérisation en intensité, à leur répartition en altitude et à leur localisation statistique. En particulier, nous étudions dans le chapitre 3 l'airglow de la molécule NO présent dans l'atmosphère nocturne de Mars à l'aide des données provenant de l'instrument SPICAM. Dans ce chapitre, nous utilisons un modèle chimique et diffusif unidimensionnel afin de confronter la théorie aux observations. Dans le chapitre 4, la même émission provenant de l'atmosphère de Vénus est analysée à l'aide du modèle unidimensionnel et des données enregistrées par l'instrument SPICAV. Les émissions de CO Cameron et du doublet CO2+ de l'atmosphère éclairée de Mars sont abordées dans le chapitre 5 à l'aide des données SPICAM. Ces émissions sont également comparées à un modèle stochastique afin de quantifier leurs processus de formation. Le chapitre 6 expose quelques perspectives de travail qui concernent ces phénomènes et qui permettrons à l'avenir d'acquérir de nouvelles informations à partir des données récoltées par SPICAV et SPICAM. Finalement, nous concluons en rassemblant les résultats clés des trois chapitres formant le corps principal de cette thèse.

The motivation for this work is the weak level of confidence in forecasting the temperature profile for the Martian atmosphere over the aerobraking region. This limitation comes mainly because of a misrepresentation of the atomic oxygen distribution in atmospheric models, which is a result of lack of measurements. One effective way to observe atomic oxygen and temperature remotely in the 50 to 100 km altitude region is through airglow measurements. The first part of the thesis involves the development of an airglow model to simulate four O2 emissions: the Herzberg I, Herzberg II, and Chamberlain band systems, as well as the Infrared Atmospheric emission at 1.27 um. The model predictions are compared with available observations from both the Mars and Venus atmospheres to exploit the consistency in the photochemistry of these two CO2-dominated atmospheres. Using composition from 3-D global circulation models of the Mars and Venus atmospheres, simulations are performed with realistic dynamical variations. Previous studies used 1-D photochemical models only. Hence, this novel approach allows in-depth investigation of the influence of dynamics and circulation on the airglow behaviour. A sensitivity study is conducted to understand the impact of the different photochemical parameters available in the literature and to recommend a set of parameters to be used in future model predictions. This approach also provides an understanding of the impact of atmospheric conditions, like temperature, dust load, water concentrations, etc., on the vertical structure of the emissions. A retrieval algorithm is also developed to perform a partial inversion of the recorded signal to extract the NO airglow emission in the Mars atmosphere from the SPICAM instrument. The method is tested with one year of stellar occultation measurements and validated with observations from SPICAM in a limb-viewing geometry and with airglow model predictions. This work identified and quantified, for the first time, localised variations in the NO nightglow, providing insights into the factors influencing the distribution of the oxygen species other than the general circulation and the photochemistry. The method proved to be a useful tool to build a climatology of the NO emission in the Mars atmosphere.

The motivation for this work is the weak level of confidence in forecasting the temperature profile for the Martian atmosphere over the aerobraking region. This limitation comes mainly because of a misrepresentation of the atomic oxygen distribution in atmospheric models, which is a result of lack of measurements. One effective way to observe atomic oxygen and temperature remotely in the 50 to 100 km altitude region is through airglow measurements. The first part of the thesis involves the development of an airglow model to simulate four O2 emissions: the Herzberg I, Herzberg II, and Chamberlain band systems, as well as the Infrared Atmospheric emission at 1.27 um. The model predictions are compared with available observations from both the Mars and Venus atmospheres to exploit the consistency in the photochemistry of these two CO2-dominated atmospheres. Using composition from 3-D global circulation models of the Mars and Venus atmospheres, simulations are performed with realistic dynamical variations. Previous studies used 1-D photochemical models only. Hence, this novel approach allows in-depth investigation of the influence of dynamics and circulation on the airglow behaviour. A sensitivity study is conducted to understand the impact of the different photochemical parameters available in the literature and to recommend a set of parameters to be used in future model predictions. This approach also provides an understanding of the impact of atmospheric conditions, like temperature, dust load, water concentrations, etc., on the vertical structure of the emissions. A retrieval algorithm is also developed to perform a partial inversion of the recorded signal to extract the NO airglow emission in the Mars atmosphere from the SPICAM instrument. The method is tested with one year of stellar occultation measurements and validated with observations from SPICAM in a limb-viewing geometry and with airglow model predictions. This work identified and quantified, for the first time, localised variations in the NO nightglow, providing insights into the factors influencing the distribution of the oxygen species other than the general circulation and the photochemistry. The method proved to be a useful tool to build a climatology of the NO emission in the Mars atmosphere.