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Hot Pay 2
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In October 2007 we will participate in the launch of a large sounding rocket (HotPay-2) from the Andoya Rocket range in northern
Norway (69o N). The Leeds group will contribute a pair of photometers to the payload. By using very narrow-band
interference filters, one of the photometers will measure the sum of the Na D-lines at 589.0 and 589.6 nm in the nightglow, and the
other will measure just the D2 line 589.6 nm. We will thus obtain the absolute D-line emission, and the D2/D1 ratio, as a function of
altitude between 80 and 105 km. In the last three years we have shown, in collaboration with Tom Slanger at SRI (Menlo Park,
California), that the D2/D1 ratio is highly variable. Indeed, it is the only nightglow emission where the spin-orbit components are
not constant. In a recent paper we have shown that the most likely explanation involves the low-lying excited state of NaO (formed by
Na + O3 --> NaO(A) + O2), either reacting with O to generate D-line emission with a high D2/D1 ratio, or
being quenched by O2 to NaO(X), which then reacts with O to generate D-line emission with a low ratio. In order to measure
the absolute Na density and temperature, the rocket will be tracked from the ground using a Na lidar at the ALOMAR observatory.
The HotPay-2 payload will have an additional three photometers to measure other components of the nightglow (Sodankyla Observatory,
Finland and University of Stockholm); a charged dust detector (Dartmouth College, US), an ion probe and Faraday rotation system to
measure positive ions and electrons, respectively (Graz Technical University, Austria); a device for measuring the spectrum of
precipitating energetic electrons (Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia); and a cosmic ray detector (Bulgarian Academy of
Sciences, Bulgaria). Finally, the rocket will fly to ~380 km above an auroral arc, in order to measure upward-flowing field-aligned
currents using a Search Coil Magnetometer (SCM) and Current Loop (CL) on booms that will deploy above 120 km.
Hot Pay-2 will be launched in October 2007
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For information related to this project
Go to > Mesosphere > Odin Satellite
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