Atomic nitrogen emissions from photodissociation of N₂

Cross sections for the production of N I emissions at 1412, 1493, and 1743 Å and the undisperesed fluorescence in the range 1050–1800 Å produced through photodissociative excitation of N 2 have been determined at selected intense atomic emission lines and throughout the synchrotron radiation continuum from 400 to 620 Å. The neutral excited atomic nitrogen fragments are produced through direct dissociation processes as well as predissociation from the well‐known two‐electron excited Rydberg states. The yield for photodissociative excitation processes is found to have the same magnitude as that for photodissociative ionization processes reported by other investigators. The Doppler shifts of the excited atomic fragments have been calculated, and the relevance to atmospheric observations is discussed.