ANGEO Annales Geophysicae ANGEO 1432-0576 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.1007/s00585-000-1293-2 Hydroxyl (6−2) airglow emission intensity ratios for rotational temperature determination French W. J. R. 1 2 Burns G. B. 1 Finlayson K. 1 Greet P. A. 1 Lowe R. P. 3 Williams P. F. B. 1 Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmanian, Australia 7050 Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 7000 Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada N6A3K7 30 11 1999 18 10 1293 1303 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.ann-geophys.net/18/1293/2000/angeo-18-1293-2000.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.ann-geophys.net/18/1293/2000/angeo-18-1293-2000.pdf

OH(6–2) Q<sub>1</sub>/P<sub>1</sub> and R<sub>1</sub>/P<sub>1</sub> airglow emission intensity ratios, for rotational states up to <i>j</i>' = 4.5, are measured to be lower than implied by transition probabilities published by various authors including Mies, Langhoff <i>et al.</i> and Turnbull and Lowe. Experimentally determined relative values of <i>j</i>' transitions yield OH(6–2) rotational temperatures 2 K lower than Langhoff <i>et al.</i>, 7 K lower than Mies and 13 K lower than Turnbull and Lowe.<br><br><b>Key words:</b> Atmospheric composition and structure (airglow and aurora; pressure, density and temperature)</p>