Seasonal variations of O2 atmospheric and OH(6-2) airglow and temperature at mid-latitudes from SATI observations

More than 3 years of airglow observations with a Spectral Airglow Temperature Imager (SATI) installed at the Sierra Nevada Observatory (37.06°N, 3.38°W) at 2900 m height have been analyzed. Values of the column emission rate and vertically averaged temperature of the O2 atmospheric (0-1) band and of the OH Memel (6-2) band from 1998 to 2002 have been presented. From these observations a clear seasonal variation of both emission rates and rotational temperatures is inferred at this latitude. It is found that the annual variation of the temperatures is larger than the semi-annual variation, while for the emission rates the amplitudes are comparable. © European Geosciences Union 2004.