Oxygen and its Role In Generating and Influencing Nightglow (ORIGIN)

The ORIGIN rocket project addresses the Earth´s nightglow, a global emission layer at atmospheric altitudes 80-110 km.

By combining quantitative studies of the major emissions O2 Atmospheric Band, O Green Line, and OH Meinel on a single payload, we revisit the ability to infer atomic oxygen and related features from sounding rocket or satellite measurements.Major scientific questions are:- To what extent do current versions of the "ETON standard model" provide a quantitative relationship between major nightglow emissions, key constituents and atmospheric background conditions?- How efficient is the newly discovered reaction path OH(v³5) + O as a nighttime source of O(1D), and how does this affect established remote sensing techniques for atomic oxygen? - How can we apply our knowledge to provide optimal tools for atomic oxygen retrievals from rocket-borne and satellite-borne measurements?Central for this study is the optical payload that was developed for the thermospheric O-STATES project in 2015 as a universal tool for rocket-borne optical measurements.

We now propose to apply this tool to our nightglow questions in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere.

We also propose to extend the payload with advanced in situ measurements of atmospheric composition and temperature.By improving our quantitative understanding of these atmospheric emission features, ORIGIN is also an important complement to the upcoming MATS satellite mission and its quest to study atmospheric dynamics by observing these emissions.