ROTATIONAL TEMPERATURES OF THE AURORAL 3914 Å NITROGEN BAND VS. HEIGHT AT CHURCHILL, MANITOBA

Abstract

Rotational temperatures derived from rapid spectrometric scans of the 3914 Å N₂⁺ band in the aurora have been made over a height range from 93 to 160 km. Simultaneous measurements of heights of lower borders were made using parallactic photography. The temperature range of approximately 190 to 570 °K agrees well with Hunten's profile and tends to confirm the gradient between 110 and 160 km at 5.2°/km.