Modeling Vibrational Populations for the Herzberg States of Molecular Oxygen in the Earth’s Middle Atmosphere during the Precipitation of Charged Particles

A study of Herzberg kinetic states $${{c}^{1}}\Sigma _{{\text{u}}}^{ - }$$ , A'3Δu, $${{{\text{A}}}^{3}}\Sigma _{{\text{u}}}^{ + }$$ is performed for molecular oxygen in the Earth’s middle atmosphere during the precipitation of high-energy protons and electrons into the atmosphere. It is shown for the first time that considering the transfer of energy from metastable molecular nitrogen N2( $${{{\text{A}}}^{3}}\Sigma _{{\text{u}}}^{ + }$$ ) is important in the processes of exciting the vibrational levels of Herzberg O2 states in the atmosphere. It is shown numerically that the contribution from processes of intermolecular energy transfer from metastable molecular nitrogen exceeds that of direct excitation of the Herzberg O2 states by secondary electrons in the Earth’s middle atmosphere.