| Over 1.7 million profiles of the volume emission rate of the hydroxyl airglow measured by the WIND Imaging Interferometer (WINDII) interferometer onboard the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS) have been used to derive atomic oxygen concentrations as a function of height, latitude, local night time and season. The determination of the atomic oxygen concentrations included the consideration of different models of hydroxyl chemistry and different sets of transition probabilities. The inferred amount of atomic oxygen derived could vary by a factor of eight depending on the assumed process. The shape of the derived atomic oxygen profile was independent of the model and set of transition rates used in the derivation. A chemical model that used multi-quantum quenching of excited hydroxyl radicals and a set of transition probabilities published by Goldman [1998] produced atomic oxygen concentrations that best fit an independent source of atomic oxygen measurements.; The derived atomic oxygen concentrations have been compared to two atmospheric models: the MSIS and the TIME-GCM. Tidal, latitudinal, seasonal and other structures in the derived atomic oxygen densities were found in the data set. The wave amplitudes and phases are dependent on altitude, latitude, and season. In general, there was good agreement of the wave structures with the TIME-GCM model but poor agreement with the MSIS. Some wave features have been discovered in the derived atomic oxygen data set that do not exist in any other model. Above 90 km, the phases of some of the tides are different to model predictions. There may also be a strong intra-seasonal wave with a period of 61 days at mid latitudes. These and other features in the derived atomic oxygen data set have been discussed in this thesis. |
