Temperature-dependent photoabsorption cross section measurements of O-2 at the OI-1304 angstrom triplet emission lines

We report the first temperature-dependent measurements (at 295, 373, 473, and 573 K) of the O-2 photoabsorption cross sections at the aeronomically-important OI-1304 Angstrom triplet emission lines. A high current, low voltage argon mini-are source was used as the light source. The measurements were carried out at a spectral resolution of 0.5 Angstrom at full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM). Direct application of the Beer-Lambert absorption equation yielded the absolute photoabsorption cross sections for O-2 at each line of the OI triplet.