Role of carbon dioxide in cooling planetary thermospheres

Abstract

A new value of the rate coefficient for the deactivation of the bending mode of carbon dioxide by atomic oxygen at low temperatures is derived from the observation of 15 μm emission from the atmosphere of the Earth. This new value gives a cooling rate for the lower thermosphere that is two to three times the rate previously calculated, and it may resolve a long‐standing problem in the Mars‐Venus aeronomy.