Title: An analysis of ionospheric dayglow from observations of the Naval   Postgraduate School Middle Ultraviolet Spectrograph (MUSTANG)
Description: Middle ultraviolet spectra of the atmospheric airglow were obtained from a March 1992 rocket flight of the NPS MUSTANG instrument. These spectra are analyzed from 1900 A to 3 100 A, over an altitude range of 100 km to 320 km. The data are modeled with computer generated synthetic spectra for the following emissions: N2 Vegard Kaplan (VK); N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (LBH; and NO Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon bands. A best fit procedure was developed. The resulting synthetic spectra agree well with obtained airglow data. Confirmation was made of the theoretical self absorption versus non-self absorption processes of the NO (0,0), (1,0), (2,0) gamma resonance band emissions. NO self absorption is a necessary inclusion of any atmospheric nitric oxide analysis stratagem. Profiles of temperature versus altitude and NO column density versus altitude for the rocket flight are estimated.