Photographic observations of the airglow layer

Abstract

The night airglow photographs taken by Gordon Cooper during his orbital flight of May 15 and 16, 1963, are discussed. They show an airglow layer 24=3 km thick and varying in height above the earth from 77 to 110 km. The measu9ed brightness indicates a surface brightness in a vertical column through the airglow layer 0.4 Rayleigh/A in the vicinity of 5400 A and 0.6 Rayleigh/A at 4200 A. (Author)