Mechanistic investigations of shuttle glow
Abstract
A series of laboratory measurements have been performed in order to provide a mechanistic interpretation for the visible shuttle glow. These studies involved interactions of an 8 km/s oxygen atom beam with both contaminated dosed surfaces and gaseous targets. We conclude that visible shuttle glow arises from surface mediated O+NO recombination via a Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism and that the gas-phase exchange reaction O+N2->NO+N provides a viable source of precursor NO above surfaces oriented in the ram direction.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Geophysical Research
- Pub Date:
- March 1993
- DOI:
- 10.1029/92JA02192
- Bibcode:
- 1993JGR....98.3725C
- Keywords:
-
- Earth Orbital Environments;
- Molecular Spectra;
- Oxygen Atoms;
- Spacecraft Glow;
- Atomic Beams;
- Nitrogen Oxides;
- General or Miscellaneous: New fields (not classifiable under other headings);
- Ionosphere: General or miscellaneous