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The Aladdin Experiment - Part II, Composition

Document ID: 32

Philbrick, C. Russell¹
Narcisi, R. S.¹
Good, R. E.¹
Hoffman, H. S.¹
Kenshea, T. J.¹
MacLeod, M. A.¹
Zimmerman, S. P.¹
Reinisch, Bodo W.²

¹ USAF, Cambridge Research Laboratories, Hanscom AFB, Bedford, MA, U.S.A.
² Lowell Technological Institute Research Foundation, Lowell, MA, U.S.A.
 

Presented: Proceedings of Open Meetings of Working Groups on Physical Sciences of the Fifteenth Plenary Meeting of COSPAR
Madrid, Spain, 10-24 May, 1972

Abstract

Vertical profiles of N₂, O₂, Ar, O, CO², O³, O₂ (¹Δ_g), total neutral density and temperature were measured in the ALADDIN experiment. The measured turbulent and molecular diffusion coefficients, total mass density and temperature were used as inputs to model the profiles of O, O₂, and other neutral constituents which are compared with the corresponding measurements. Emission of O₂ (¹Δ_g) showed a peak density at 82 km of 1.3 x 10⁹ cm^-3, corresponding to an ozone density peak of 6 x 10⁷ cm^-3. Oxidation of lithium released as a tracer decreased rapidly from 85 to 100 km, requiring a Li-Li-M reaction to account for the observations. A blanketing Es layer was observed to increase from 3.5 M.Hz at launch to 8 M.Hz two hours later, possibly associated with AI⁺ ions formed during the chemical releases used for wind and temperature profiles. Positive ion composition measurements showed a meteoric ion layer at 108 km composed mainly of Si⁺ with Mg⁺, Na⁺, Fe⁺, Ca⁺, Ni⁺, and SiO⁺ which corresponds to a 3.5 M.Hz blanketing sporadic-E layer seen with a ground-based ionosonde. AI⁺ associated with the chemical release of Al(CH₃)₃ was measured in two regions of the flight; calculations of the effect of wind fields on the ion density distributions show ion density profiles which generally agree with the measurements.

Notes

Also published in Digisonde Observations During Chemical Releases, Bibl, Klaus; Reinisch, Bodo W. Department of Defense, Jan 1976

 

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Keywords: mesosphere, D-region, E-region, turbopause

Citation:

"The Aladdin Experiment - Part II, Composition", Philbrick, C. R., R. S. Narcisi, R. E. Good, H. S. Hoffman, T. J. Kenshea, M. A. MacLeod, S. P. Zimmerman, B. W. Reinisch, SPACE RESEARCH, Vol. XIII, COSPAR (Committee on Space Research), 1973, pp. 442 - 448