Multiple layer profiles of airglow emission from WINDII observations

The Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII) instrument onboard the Upper Atmo-sphere Research Satellite (UARS) measures the volume emission rate of five different airglow emissions in the mesosphere and the lower thermosphere. Normally these observed volume emission rate profiles occur in a single layer with a fairly smooth vertical distribution at nighttime. The objective of this thesis is to study the abnormal profiles which show a multiple-layer structure. This includes the nighttime airglow from the O(1S) atomic oxygen green line, the O2(b1 S+g ) Atmospheric (0-0) band and the OH (8-3) Meinel band P1(3) line in the altitude range of 80 to 110 km. The analysis uses the WINDII level 2 data which have been processed by WINDII v5.11 software.;Calculations for the oxygen atom number density are made involving kinetic mechanisms of airglow emission, and a background atmosphere from the MSIS-90 model.;For a statistical study the WINDII volume emission rate data are zonally averaged into 5° latitude and 1 hr local time bins. The frequencies of occurrence of multiple layer profiles are calculated based on data from 1992 to 1996. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...