Neutral temperatures in the lower thermosphere from N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (LBH) band profiles

Abstract

Measurements of the neutral temperature in the lower thermosphere, using high resolution (0.13 nm) N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (LBH) band emissions are presented. The data were taken by the High-resolution Ionospheric and Thermospheric Spectrograph (HITS) instrument aboard the Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite (ARGOS). By fitting the LBH band profiles, temperatures in the thermosphere between ∼150 and 270 km have been retrieved. Temperatures retrieved for three geomagnetically quiet days, 28-30 July 2001 are consistent with temperatures from the Mass Spectrometer and Incoherent Scatter (MSIS) model. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.