Structure, variability, and origin of the low-latitude nightglow continuum between 300 and 1800 nm: evidence for HO₂ emission in the near-infrared

The Earth's mesopause region between about 75 and 105 km is characterised by chemiluminescent emission from various lines of different molecules and atoms. This emission was and is important for the study of the chemistry and dynamics in this altitude region at nighttime. However, our understanding is still very limited with respect to molecular emissions with low intensities and high line densities that are challenging to resolve. Based on 10 years of data from the astronomical X-shooter echelle spectrograph at Cerro Paranal in Chile, we have characterised in detail this nightglow (pseudo-)continuum in the wavelength range from 300 to 1800 nm. We studied the spectral features, derived continuum components with similar variability, calculated climatologies, studied the response to solar activity, and even estimated the effective emission heights. The results indicate that the nightglow continuum at Cerro Paranal essentially consists of only two components, which exhibit very different properties. The main structures of these components peak at 595 and 1510 nm. While the former was previously identified as the main peak of the FeO “orange arc” bands, the latter is a new discovery. Laboratory data and theory indicate that this feature and other structures between about 800 and at least 1800 nm are caused by emission from the low-lying A′′ and A′ states of HO2. In order to test this assumption, we performed runs with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) with modified chemistry and found that the total intensity, layer profile, and variability indeed support this interpretation, where the excited HO2 radicals are mostly produced from the termolecular recombination of H and O2. The WACCM results for the continuum component that dominates at visual wavelengths show good agreement for FeO from the reaction of Fe and O3. However, the simulated total emission appears to be too low, which would require additional mechanisms where the variability is dominated by O3. A possible (but nevertheless insufficient) process could be the production of excited OFeOH by the reaction of FeOH and O3.