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Origin of Sodium and Lithium in the Upper Atmosphere

Abstract

LITHIUM resonance radiation in the twilight air-glow of the southern hemisphere has recently been observed in several places1,2. Over Adelie Land in the Antarctic this radiation is reported to have been present both in 1957 and 1958. In October 1957 its intensity was estimated visually to be of the order of a tenth that of the sodium D lines in the twilight. After the high-altitude nuclear bomb explosion in the Pacific in August 1958 this radiation was also observed at Hallett Station in the Antarctic and afterwards in September at Invercargill in New Zealand. Its intensity is roughly estimated as equal to the total sodium D line intensity at Hallett in August and a tenth of this in New Zealand in September.

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References

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DONAHUE, T. Origin of Sodium and Lithium in the Upper Atmosphere. Nature 183, 1480–1481 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/1831480a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1831480a0

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