New insights for mesospheric OH: multi-quantum vibrational relaxation as a driver for non-local thermodynamic equilibrium

Kalogerakis, Konstantinos S.; Matsiev, Daniel; Cosby, Philip C.; Dodd, James A.; Falcinelli, Stefano; Hedin, Jonas; Kutepov, Alexander A.; Noll, Stefan; Panka, Peter A.; Romanescu, Constantin; Thiebaud, Jérôme E.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-13-2018

Articles | Volume 36, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-13-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-13-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 36, issue 1

Regular paper

| Highlight paper

|

09 Jan 2018

Regular paper | Highlight paper |

| 09 Jan 2018

New insights for mesospheric OH: multi-quantum vibrational relaxation as a driver for non-local thermodynamic equilibrium

Konstantinos S. Kalogerakis, Daniel Matsiev, Philip C. Cosby, James A. Dodd, Stefano Falcinelli, Jonas Hedin, Alexander A. Kutepov, Stefan Noll, Peter A. Panka, Constantin Romanescu, and Jérôme E. Thiebaud

Data sets

Lines and continuum sky emission in the near infrared: observational constraints from deep high spectral resolution spectra with GIANO-TNG E. Oliva, L. Origlia, S. Scuderi, S. Benatti, I. Carleo, E. Lapenna, A. Mucciarelli, C. Baffa, V. Biliotti, L. Carbonaro, G. Falcini, E. Giani, M. Iuzzolino, F. Massi, N. Sanna, M. Sozzi, A. Tozzi, A. Ghedina, F. Ghinassi, M. Lodi, A. Harutyunyan, and M. Pedani https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201526291

Short summary

The question of whether mesospheric rotational population distributions of vibrationally excited OH are in equilibrium with the local kinetic temperature has been debated over several decades. We examine the relationship of multi-quantum relaxation pathways with the behavior exhibited by OH(v) rotational population distributions and find that the effective rotational temperatures of mesospheric OH(v) deviate from local thermodynamic equilibrium for all observed vibrational levels.