History of Astronomy-Aeronomy Collaboration
Definitions
"Aeronomy is the scientific discipline devoted to the study of
the composition, movement, and thermal balance of planetary
atmospheres" -- Banks and Kockarts (1973)
"Airglow consists of the nonthermal radiation of the
atmosphere, with the exceptions of aurora, lightning, and meteor
trains, particularized by local solar time as dayglow (day
airglow), twilight airglow, and nightglow (night
airglow)" -- (paraphrased from) Chamberlain (1961/1995) and Roach and
Gordon (1973) and attributed to Struve and Elvey (1950).
Discoveries
- 1610 Galileo - Phases of Venus
- 1616 Galileo - Telescope observation of sunspots
- 1643 Riccioli - Venus "Ashen Light" (night airglow, aurora, or
lightning?)
- 1730 Cassini - Cosmic dust and "Zodiacal Light"
- 1784 W. Herschel - Seasonal variation of Mars polar caps
- 1800 Flaugergues - Dust storms on Mars
- 1814 Fraunhofer - Solar spectroscopy: A (762 nm) and B (688 nm)
absorption bands in the solar spectrum, subsequently identified as
O2 (Atmospheric Bands) in the Earth's atmosphere
- 1844 Schwabe - Sunspot cycle identified
- 1866 Angstrom - Auroral spectroscopy: "Auroral Green Line" emission
at 558 nm, subsequently identified as atomic oxygen O(1S)
- 1868 Angstrom - Nightglow Spectroscopy: Green line is present
even in the absence of aurorae
- 1871 Lord Rayleigh III - Blue color of Earth's day
sky due to atmospheric "Rayleigh Scattering" of sunlight
- 1877 Tromholt - Correlation between aurorae and sunspots
- 1880 Stewart - Earth's ionosphere inferred
- 1881 Langley - 1400-4300 nm solar absorption
by atmospheric H2O and CO2
- 1881 Hartley - Ozone in Earth's atmosphere absorbs
ultraviolet radiation
- 1902 de Bort - Balloon temperature measurements reveal the
stratosphere
- 1907 Stormer - Solar wind inferred to explain aurorae
- 1907 Trowbridge - Horizonal and vertical winds in the
upper atmosphere inferred from meteor trains
- 1909 Fowler - Cometary spectroscopy: Carbon monoxide
CO+ "Comet Tail" bands
- 1919 Fabry - Light of the night sky is sum of stellar background,
scattered sunlight, and atmospheric emission
- 1920 Lord Rayleigh IV - Solar-Fraunhofer dips in
night sky "continuum"
- 1921 van Rhijn - Model of horizon-brightening of night airglow
- 1924 Lord Rayleigh IV - Time variation of the night sky spectrum
- 1927 Dieke - Isotopes of oxygen discovered in solar absorption
by O2 Atmospheric Bands
- 1929 Slipher - Atomic sodium D lines and oxygen Red Lines in Earth
night airglow
- 1930 Lord Rayleigh IV - Intensity of atomic oxygen Green Line
emission at 558 nm in Earth night airglow (Rayleigh photometric unit),
7% of the visual bightness of the night sky
- 1932 Adams - Planetary Spectroscopy: CO2 absorption
by Venus atmosphere
- 1941 Dufay - Ultraviolet emission (310-360 nm) in
Earth night airglow from O2(A)
- 1947 Herzberg - 1270 nm solar absorption
by O2(a) "Infrared Atmospheric Band"
- 1950 Courtes - Atomic nitrogen emission in Earth night airglow
- 1950 Meinel - Strong red-infrared emission lines in
Earth night airglow from vibrational-rotation bands of
OH hydroxyl radical
- 1950 Cabannes - Atmospheric temperature near 90 km measured
from OH rotational line emission intensities
- 1950 Meinel - O2(b-X,0-1) emission band in
Earth night airglow
- 1950 Martyn - Generation of atmospheric (gravity) waves from the
troposphere to the ionosphere by air flow over mountains
- 1952 Kuiper - CO2 absorption by Mars atmosphere
- 1956 Byram - Rocket measurement of Lyman-alpha emission
from Earth's exosphere and Milky Way
- 1956 Byram - Rocket measurement of 143-148 nm solar flux
and 110-180 km altitude profile of molecular oxygen
- 1956 Koomen - Rocket measurement of altitude profiles
of O(1S) and Na emissions in Earth night airglow
- 1956 Bedinger - Rocket Na release quantifies twilight and
night airglow emissions and measures mesospheric winds
- 1958 Halliday - Atomic oxygen Green Line observed in meteor
spectra
- 1960 Blackwell - Zodiacal Light is solar radiation
scattered by dust particles in the ecliptic plane
- 1963 Spinrad - H2O absorption by Mars atmosphere
- 1971 Gibson - LIDAR: sodium altitude profile
- 1971 Barth - Mariner 6,7,9 missions record Mars day airglow
ultraviolet emissions: Lyman-alpha, O(1S-3P),
CO(a-X,A-X), CO2+
- 1972 Carleton - O2 absorption by Mars atmosphere
- 1976 Krasnopolsky - Mars 5 orbiter fails to record Mars
day or night airglow visible emissions
- 1976 Krasnopolsky - Venera 9,10 orbiters record Venus night airglow
O2(c) visible emission
- 1978 Slanger - O2(A') emissions in Venera spectra
- 1979 Stewart - Pioneer-Venus orbiter records Venus night airglow
nitric oxide (NO) ultraviolet emission
- 1979 Connes - Venus day and night airglow O2(a) emission
- 1979 Traub - Mars day airglow O2(a) emission
- 1980 Hauchecorne - LIDAR: density and temperature altitude
profiles
- 1981 Slanger - Earth night airglow O2(c) and
O2(A') emissions
- 1982 Pelon - LIDAR: ozone altitude profile
- 1983 Trauger - Lack of O2 absorption by Venus atmosphere
- 1989 LeCompte - Pioneer Venus day airglow
O(1S-3P) emissions at 297 nm
- 1989 Drossart - H3+ infrared emission in
Jupiter aurora
- 1993 Huestis - Meteor track inferred from Pioneer-Venus data
- 1993 Trafton - H3+ infrared emission in
Uranus aurora
- 1993 Geballe - H3+ infrared emission in
Saturn aurora
- 1994 Shoemaker-Levy - Comet impact on Jupiter atmosphere
- 1996 Lisse - X-ray emission from comet Hyakutake bow shock, charge
transfer with solar wind
- 1996 Osterbrock - First high-resolution survey night sky
spectrum, using Keck/HIRES echelle spectrograph.
- 1997 Slanger - Isotopic terrestrial O2
Atmospheric-Band emissions in the Osterbrock spectrum
- 2000 Slanger - Vibrational distribution of O2(b)
in Earth night airglow
- 2000 Slanger - Atomic oxygen Green Line emission in
Venus night airglow, using Keck/HIRES
References
- W. S. Adams and T. Dunham, Jr., "Absorption Bands in the
Infra-Red Spectrum of Venus," PASP 44, 243-245 (1932).
- P. M. Banks and G. Kockarts, Aeronomy
(Academic Press, New York, 1973).
- D. E. Blackwell, "The Zodiacal Light," Sci. Am. 203(1),
54-63 (1960).
- A. Brekke, Physics of the Upper Polar Atmosphere
(John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1997).
- J. W. Chamberlain, Physics of Aurora and Airglow
(Academic Press, New York, 1961; reprint edition: Am. Geophys.
Union, Washington, DC, 1995).
- J. W. Chamberlain and D. M. Hunten, Theory of Planetary
Atmospheres 2nd Ed. (Academic Press, San Diego, 1987).
- M. L. Chanin, "Review of Lidar Contributions to the Description
and Understanding of the Middle Atmosphere," J. Atmos. Terr. Phys.
46, 987-993 (1984).
- D. P. Cruikshank, "The Ashen Light of Venus," in Research Amateur Astronomy,
S. J. Edberg, Ed., ASP Conference Series 33, 43-60 (1992).
- P. Drossart, et al. "Detection of
H3+ on Jupiter," Nature, 340, 539-542 (1989).
- A. Fowler, MNRAS 70, 176 (1909); 484 (1910).
- T. R. Geballe, M.F. Jagod, and T. Oka, "Detection of
H3+ Infrared Emission in Saturn,"
Ap. J. 408, L109-L112 (1993).
- M. T. Greene, "High Achiever. The Discovery of the Stratosphere
Laid the Foundations of Geophysics," Nature 407, 947 (2000).
- I. Halliday, "Forbidden Line of O I Observed in Meteor
Spectra," Ap. J. 128, 441-443 (1958).
- C. O. Hines and Colleagues, The Upper Atmosphere in
Motion (Am. Geophys. Union, Washington, DC, 1974).
- D. L. Huestis and T. G. Slanger, "New Perspectives on the Venus Nightglow,"
J. Geophys. Res. (Planets) 98, 10,839-10,847 (1993).
- H. H. Kieffer, B. M. Jakosky, C. W. Snyder, and M. S. Mathews,
Eds., Mars (Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson, 1992).
- G. P. Kuiper, Ed., The Earth as Planet (Univ. Chicago
Press, Chicago, 1953).
- C. M. Lisse, et al., "Discovery of X-ray and Extreme
Ultraviolet Emission from Comet C/Hyakutake 1996 B2," Science
274, 205-209 (1996).
- D. E. Osterbrock, et al. "Night-Sky High-Resolution
Spectral Atlas of OH and O2 Emission Lines for
Echelle Spectrograph Wavelength Calibration," PASP 108,
277-308 (1996).
- F. E. Roach and J. I. Gordon, The Light of the Night Sky
(D. Reidel Publishing, Dortrecht-Holland, 1973).
- T. G. Slanger and D. L. Huestis, "O2(c 1Sigmau- ->
X 3Sigmag-) Emission in the
Terrestrial Nightglow," J. Geophys. Res. 86, 3551-3554 (1981).
- T. G. Slanger, D. L. Huestis, D. E. Osterbrock, and J. P.
Fulbright, "The Isotopic Oxygen Nightglow as Viewed from Mauna Kea,"
Science 277, 1485-1488 (1997).
- T. G. Slanger, P. C. Cosby, D. L. Huestis, and D. E. Osterbrock,
"Vibrational Level Distribution of
O2(b1Sigmag+, v=0-15) in
the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere Region," J. Geophys. Res.
105(D16), 20,557-20,564 (2000).
- T. G. Slanger, P. C. Cosby, D. L. Huestis, and T. A. Bida,
"Discovery of the Atomic Oxygen Green Line in the Venus Night Airglow,"
(submitted, 2000).
- L. M. Trafton, et al. "Detection of
H3+ from Jupiter," Ap. J., 405,
761-766 (1993).
- M. Zelikoff, Ed., The Threshold of Space, The Proceedings
of the Conference on Chemical Aeronomy (Pergamon Press,
New York, 1956).
- R. W. Zurek, "Martian Great Dust Storms," Icarus 50,
288-310 (1982).
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