Estimation of CO2 based on Forbidden Oxygen Emission Lines Ratio in Cometary Spectra

Abstract

The oxygen atoms in meta-stable state are considered to be generated by the photo-dissociation of parent molecules such as H₂O, CO₂, etc. H₂O molecule is usually thought as the most dominant source of these oxygen atoms in meta-stable state when a comet is at around 1 AU from the Sun. However, The ratio of green to red doublet lines, which indicates the ratio of O(¹S) to O(¹D), would give us a clue to dis-tinguish the source of meta-stable oxygen atoms from different parent molecules.