Studies of the altitude variations of upper atmospheric winds indicate oscillatory components of the horizontal wind motion in the vertical plane. The smaller scales of these oscillatory motions have been shown to be the lengths predicted by the theory of the viscous limited internal gravity waves. Measurements of the large scales in the 120 to 180 km altitude range have shown a marked correlation to the pressure scale height. Analysis of these large-scale vertical wavelengths indicates that the equivalent depth (h) of the atmosphere corresponds to two of the eigenmodes of earth's atmosphere or model atmosphere of the solar semidiurnal tide predicted by the Laplace tidal equation. These are, respectively, the (2, 4) mode which appears to dominate in the summer, and the (2, 6) mode which is dominant in the winter. (Author).

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 18. I am advised that a preface, though not necessary, would at least be conventional. Since this provides the one opportunity for conventionality that the volume as a whole opens up, it would be churlish of me to decline. A preface normally includes, I am told, an indication of both the reason that underlies the volume's very existence and the individuals to whom the volume is directed. But part of the reason for the volume's existence lies, strange though it may seem, in communicating the reason for the volume's existence. Since prefaces generally go unread, I would be remiss if I attempted that communication here. Instead, I have left the attempt to the Introduction and Key, which I believe has a better chance of being read. Let us be willing to settle, for the moment, on the truly fundamental fact that the volume was prepared because I was prepared to prepare it and a publisher was prepared to publish it. As to the intended readers; they too, must wait for their identification in the Introduction and Key, unless they are willing to settle at this point on an identification as those who might be ready to read what I was prepared to prepare.

A series of sounding rockets were launched to study the atmosphere over a day-night period. Part of this program consisted of two optical payloads for molecular oxygen. The molecular oxygen concentration was obtained from Lyman-alpha and 1450A sensors. Here the method of analysis for molecular oxygen is discussed and the results presented and compared with models and other data. The molecular oxygen concentration is measured by the technique of absorption spectroscopy, using the sun as a light source.