. Compendium of meteorology. Meteorology. 252 THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE an atmosphere consisting of N2 and Oz below, to one of N2 and 0 above [25, 57, 88, 90, 108]. Since low pressure is conducive to diffusive separation, it might be ex- pected that atomic oxygen would predominate in the highest regions of the atmosphere [75]. There is, how- ever, no evidence of it. Spectra of auroral streamers extending up to 1000 km and beyond show lines due to atomic oxygen and bands due to Ni with almost equal intensity. Presence of atomic nitrogen has also been reported in low-latitude aurorae [32, 41], but wh
. Compendium of meteorology. Meteorology. 252 THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE an atmosphere consisting of N2 and Oz below, to one of N2 and 0 above [25, 57, 88, 90, 108]. Since low pressure is conducive to diffusive separation, it might be ex- pected that atomic oxygen would predominate in the highest regions of the atmosphere [75]. There is, how- ever, no evidence of it. Spectra of auroral streamers extending up to 1000 km and beyond show lines due to atomic oxygen and bands due to Ni with almost equal intensity. Presence of atomic nitrogen has also been reported in low-latitude aurorae [32, 41], but whether atomic nitrogen is as generally distributed as atomic oxygen is not yet known (see section on aurorae below). Temperature Distribution. The temperature distri- bution in the troposphere and the lower stratospheric regions is now well known from direct observations with the help of sounding balloons and smoke shells [50]. There is a falling temperature (lapse rate about 5C km~0 in the troposphere, the depth of which varies between 8 and 18 Icm. Above the troposphere the temperature is nearly constant. For the higher regions up to 120 km, we now have results of direct observation thanks to successful V-2 rocket flights. These obser- vations are now confined only to isolated places (in the United States) but it is hoped that in the near future reliable data based on rocket observations will also be available for the different latitudes at different hours of the day and night and in different seasons. A com- plete picture of the world distribution of temperature, at least up to Region E of the ionosphere, will thus be available. In Fig. 6 the temperature distribution ob- i20r 100 80 i" ^ 60 40 20. O DERIVED FROM PRESSURE- HEIGHT CURVE • FROM RAM PRESSURE i FROM SOUNDING BALLOON _L J 150 200 250 300 350 TEMPERATURE (°K) 400 Fig. 6.—Temperature distribution with height. The rocket data are from the flight on March 7, 1947 at White Sands, New Mexico. The sounding ballo
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