Combined airglow and incoherent scatter observations as a technique for studying neutral atmospheric variations

Night airglow 6300 Å intensities and electron density altitude profiles observed at Arecibo have been combined with dissociative recombination theory to obtain information about the nighttime variation of F-region N₂ and O₂ densities. The application of this technique is illustrated using data from two nights in March 1971. The gross nighttime variation shows reasonable similarity to the Jacchia [1970] model, and also follows the time variation of the measured exospheric temperature. However, on both nights there is evidence of a postmidnight enhancement of the O₂/N₂ density ratio associated with a rapid decrease in the height of the F layer.