Luminescence of Molecular Nitrogen and Molecular Oxygen in the Earth’s Middle Atmosphere During the Precipitation of High-Energy Protons

The intensity profiles of the bands of the first and second positive N2 systems and the infrared atmospheric and atmospheric O2 systems were calculated based on models of the electronic kinetics of triplet states of molecular nitrogen and singlet states of molecular oxygen for the middle Earth’s atmosphere in the case of the precipitation of high-energy protons into the Earth’s atmosphere during the ground-level enhancement (GLE) (no. 69) on January 20, 2005. Calculations have shown that there is a significant contribution from the quenching of the B3Πg state during molecular collisions over nearly all of the considered altitude range of 20–80 km. The kinetics of O2 singlet states at altitudes of the middle atmosphere during proton precipitation is considered. Both direct excitation by high-energy particles and intermolecular processes of electron-excitation transfer are taken into account. It is shown that the quenching of the b¹Σ _g⁺ state during inelastic molecular collisions leads to a significant decrease in the intensities of the bands of the atmospheric system at the heights of the middle atmosphere.