Determination of the Lifetime of Molecules and Estimation
of the Flux of Penetrating Electrons Generating a Cloud of Excess
Concentration of in the Ionosphere at Altitudes above 220 km

V. M. Ignat’ev

Institute of Space Physics and Aeronomy, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk

e-mail: nikolashkin@ikfia.ysn.ru

Received September 1, 2011; in final form, September 9, 2013

Abstract—The occurrence of anomalous (nonthermal) profiles of green emission of oxygen atoms detected with
a Fabry–Perot spectrometer in auroras with the effect of a rapid decrease in the intensity of the wings of their dis-
sociative component has been investigated. Based on an analysis of these measured profiles, it has been found that
the characteristic time of recombination of a molecular oxygen ion at altitudes of 200–400 km is about 5–7 s.
It appears that these molecular ions occur in a horizontally limited region of the auroral ionosphere as a result of
ionization by a space localized flux of soft electrons with energies of 0.2–0.4 keV penetrating up to altitudes of
200 km. The estimation of the electron flux produces a value of 10¹⁰–10¹³ electrons cm^–2 s^–1. They generate the
excess concentration n() ~ 5.6 10⁵ cm^–3.

DOI: 10.1134/S0016793214010034

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