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The visible airglow experiments on the Atmosphere Explorer C and E satellites have viewed the (9‐3) band nightglow emission of the excited hydroxyl radical in the lower thermosphere at tropical latitudes. The surface brightnesses observed at similar local times vary by approximately a factor of 2. Comparison of the measurements with time‐dependent photochemical calculations shows reasonable agreement and indicates that temporal changes in atmospheric transport processes are the most likely explanation of the nightglow variations.
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Frederick et al. (1978) studied this question.
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