IV. MAGNETOSPHERIC EFFECTS OF ARGON PLASMA EXHAUST In this Section, we shall apply the physical interactions discussed in the previous Section to phenomena affecting human activities in space and on the ground. The entire Section is organized into seven Subsections, although the Subsections are by no means independent. A. Artificial Airglow and Optical Earth-Sensor Interference Space-based optical sensors that peer at or through the earth's atmosphere for military, scientific, or earth-resource applications are widely used at the current time, and prognostications indicate even further exploitation of remote sensing techniques in the future. The interpretation of data from such systems must, of course, take into consideration the optical emissions that emanate from the atmosphere itself. For many if not most applications the atmospheric emissions represent an unavoidable background against which measurements must be made. Quite understandably, any changes in the background would have impact on the performance of such systems »via their effect on data analysis and interpretation. In cases of extreme changes in the background sensor design modifications might be called for. In the unperturbed low and mid-latitude regions of the upper atmosphere the optical emissions are called collectively "The Airglow". They range in wavelength from the extreme ultraviolet to the far infrared. These radiations, which are comprised mainly of lines and bands of O, O2, N2, NO and H, are produced by various processes such as resonant and fluorescent scattering of sunlight, photoelectron excitation, and chemical interaction. It is instructive at this point to distinguish between photoelectrons in the iono33
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