Calculations of Fine-Structure Effects in O+ - O Collisions

项目摘要希克曼/ATM-9409362这个项目将涉及离子和中性原子氧的散射的理论计算，这是高层大气中最重要的碰撞过程之一。O和O(碰撞频率)之间的耦合在全球大气风环流模式和确定电离层离子密度方面起着至关重要的作用。这一碰撞频率的计算值与从空气动力学实验中推断的值之间存在当前的差异。所有以前的频率计算都忽略了原子氧的精细结构分裂以及碰撞过程中氧态之间的自旋-轨道和转动耦合。这些影响是显著的，并且可能大到足以消除差异。

Project Summary Hickman/ATM-9409362 This project will involve theoretical calculations of the scattering of ionic and neutral atomic oxygen, one of the most important collision processes in the upper atmosphere. The coupling between O+ and O (a collision frequency) plays a crucial role in models of global atmospheric wind circulation and in determining the ion density in the ionosphere. There is a current discrepancy between calculated values of this collision frequency and values inferred from aeronomic experiments. All previous calculations of the frequency have ignored the fine-structure splitting of atomic oxygen as well as spin-orbit and rotational coupling between the states of O+2 during the collision. These effects are significant and may be large enough to remove the discrepancy.