Preliminary results from the ISAMS NO channel: Thermospheric radiances

The Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS) is producing the first global measurements of emission from the 1 yields 0 band of nitric oxide (NO). The emission from the lower thermosphere has been examined and is seen to increase dramatically at times corresponding to high solar activity. The temporal and geographical extent of the effect is reported, and possible mechanisms for the enhanced emission are discussed. The need for adequate representation of thermospheric NO emission in order to retrieve NO number densities at all heights from ISAMS data is discussed, as are prospects for science studies using such NO number density measurements.