The O II (7319-7330 Å) dayglow

The paper is concerned with a more detailed determination of the quenching rates of O(+)(2-P) ions by electrons, molecular nitrogen, and atomic oxygen using data from the Atmosphere Explorer C and D satellites. It is found that the orbit examined by Walker et al. (1975) was contaminated by zodiacal emissions. Production of the cited ions in the daytime is primarily due to photoionization excitation of neutral atomic oxygen. The quenching rate coefficients which best modified the 7319-A source functions to satisfy the data are determined by a least squares fitting technique. Molecular nitrogen is shown to dominate the quenching over most of the altitude ranges. Electrons become the most important quenching agent at high altitudes but are still a factor of 10 less important than radiation.