GALACTIC HYDROGEN AS A HAZARD IN AURORAL SPECTROSCOPY

Abstract

Hydrogen emissions from diffuse galactic nebulae in the Milky Way region have been found to interfere seriously at times with studies of the occurrence of auroral hydrogen emissions made with patrol spectrographs. Charts have been prepared in which the brightness of galactic hydrogen is plotted in galactic coordinates as contour lines of constant brightness in Rayleighs. This presents the information available from the astronomical literature in a form suitable for use in upper atmosphere spectroscopy.