Ionizing nightglow: sources, intensity, and spatial distribution

Photometers carried aboard an Aerobee rocket mapped the ultraviolet night sky at White Sands, New Mexico. Maps for five 300 A passbands in the wavelength range 170 to 1400 A reveal spatial radiation patterns unique to each spectral subregion. The major ultraviolet features seen in these maps are ascribed to a variety of sources: 1) solar Lyman α (1216 A) and Lyman β (1026 A), resonantly scattered by geocoronal hydrogen; 2) solar HeII (304 A) resonantly scattered by ionized helium in the Earth's plasmasphere; 3) solar HeI (584 A) resonantly scattered by neutral helium in the interstellar wind and Doppler shifted so that it penetrates the Earth's helium blanket; and 4) starlight in the 912 to 1400 A band, primarily from early-type stars in the Orion region. Not explained are the presence of small, but measurable, albedo signals observed near the peak of flight. Intensities vary from several kilorayleighs for Lyman α to a few rayleighs for HeII. (auth)