airglow, faint luminescence of Earth’s upper atmosphere that is caused by air molecules’ and atoms’ selective absorption of solar ultraviolet and X-radiation. Most of the airglow emanates from the region about 50 to 300 km (31 to 180 miles) above the surface of Earth, with the brightest area concentrated at altitudes around 97 km (60 miles). Unlike the aurora, airglow does not exhibit structures such as arcs and is emitted from the entire sky at all latitudes at all times. The nocturnal phenomenon is called nightglow. Dayglow and twilight glow are analogous terms.
Photochemical luminescence (which is also called chemiluminescence) is caused by the chemical reactions of incoming solar radiation with atoms and molecules present in the upper atmosphere. Sunlight supplies the energy needed to raise these materials to excited states, and they in turn produce emissions at particular wavelengths. Atmospheric scientists frequently observe emissions from sodium (Na), hydroxyl radical (OH), molecular oxygen (O2), and atomic oxygen (O). Emissions of sodium occur in the sodium layer (some 50 to 65 km [31 to 40 miles] above Earth’s surface), whereas emissions from OH, molecular oxygen, and atomic oxygen are most concentrated at altitudes of 87 km (54 miles), 95 km (60 miles), and 90–100 km (56–62 miles), respectively.
Radiation emitted from these molecules and atoms can be observed in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelength of sodium emissions is approximately 590 nm, so they appear yellow-orange. The wavelengths of emissions from OH and molecular oxygen, however, span wide bands ranging from about 650 to 700 nm (red) and 380 to 490 nm (violet to blue), respectively. In contrast, atomic oxygen emissions occur at three distinct wavelengths located at 508 nm (green), 629 nm (orange-red), and 632 nm (red) within the electromagnetic spectrum.
Nightglow is very feeble in the visible region of the spectrum; the illumination it gives to a horizontal surface at the ground is only about the same as that from a candle at a height of 91 metres (300 feet). It is possibly about 1,000 times stronger in the infrared region.
Observations from Earth’s surface and data from spacecraft and satellites indicate that much of the energy emitted during nightglow comes from recombination processes. In one such process, radiant energy is released when oxygen atoms recombine to form molecular oxygen, O2, which had originally become dissociated upon absorbing sunlight. In another process, free electrons and ions (notably ionized atomic oxygen) recombine and emit light.
In the daytime and during twilight, the process of resonance scattering of sunlight by sodium, atomic oxygen, nitrogen, and nitric oxide seems to contribute to airglow. Moreover, interactions between cosmic rays from deep space and neutral atoms and molecules of the upper atmosphere may play a role in both the nocturnal and daytime phenomena in the high latitudes.