The solar cycle affects the H₂O concentration in the upper mesosphere mainly in two ways: directly through photolysis and, at the time and place of NLC formation, indirectly through temperature changes. The H₂O–Lyman-α response is modified by NLC formation, resulting in a positive response at the ice formation region (due to the temperature change effect on the ice formation rate) and a negative response at the sublimation zone (due to the photolysis effect).

Ground-based observations show a phase shift in semi-annual variation of excited hydroxyl emissions at mid-latitudes compared to those at low latitudes. This differs from the annual cycle at high latitudes. We found that this shift in the semi-annual cycle is determined mainly by the superposition of annual variations of T and O concentration. The winter peak for emission is determined exclusively by atomic oxygen concentration, whereas the summer peak is the superposition of all impacts.

Sounding rockets are the only means of measuring small-scale structures (i.e., spatial scales of kilometers to centimeters) in the Earth's middle atmosphere (50–120 km). We present and analyze brand-new high-resolution measurements of atomic oxygen (O) concentration together with high-resolution measurements of ionospheric plasma and neutral air parameters. We found a new behavior of the O inside turbulent layers, which might be essential to adequately model weather and climate.

Based on rocket-borne true common volume observations of atomic oxygen, atmospheric band emission (762 nm), and background atmosphere density and temperature, one-step, two-step, and combined mechanisms of O₂(b¹Σg⁺) formation were analyzed. We found new coefficients for the fit function based on self-consistent temperature, atomic oxygen, and volume emission observations. This can be used for atmospheric band volume emission modeling or the estimation of atomic oxygen by known volume emission.