Fig. 1. Production and loss mechanisms of the O₂（a¹∆_g） airglow

Fig. 2. Concentration of O₂（a¹∆_g） generated under different physical and chemical mechanisms

Fig. 3. Spectral distribution of O₂（a¹Δ_g） airglow radiation at different temperatures

Fig. 4. Limb viewing geometry modeling

Fig. 5. Influence of self-absorption effect on O₂(a¹∆_g) airglow limb spectral brightness：(a) limb spectral brightness with or without self absorption effect at 70 km；(b) limb spectral brightness with or without self absorption effect at 50 km；(c) the ratio of spectral line brightness considering self-absorption effect and not considering self-absorption effect

Fig. 6. O₂(a¹∆_g) airglow spectral radiance signal at different limb heights：(a) spectral radiance of airglow along the line of sight；(b) spectral radiance efficiency of airglow in the target layer

Fig. 7. The trend of relative radiant intensities of O₂ airglow in A, B and C bands and their ratios as a function of temperature： (a) the trend of the relative intensity of the sum of A and C bands and the relative intensity of B band as a function of temperature；(b) the trend of the ratio of the sum of relative intensity in A and C bands to the relative intensity in B band as a function of temperature

Fig. 8. Comparison of temperature profiles retrieved from SCIAMACHY with temperature products from SABER and its corresponding temperature difference：（a） comparison of temperature data between SCIAMACHY and SABER at close positions at 10：00 local time on March 16，2011；（b） comparison of temperature data between SCIAMACHY and SABER at close positions at 8：00 local time on April 7，2011；（c） temperature difference between SCIAMACHY and SABER on March 16，2011；（d） temperature difference between SCIAMACHY and SABER on April 7，2011

Fig. 9. Comparison of temperature profiles retrieved from SCIAMACHY with temperature products from ACE-FTS and the temperature difference between the two： (a) comparison of temperature profiles between SCIAMACHY and ACE-FTS；(b) temperature difference between SCIAMACHY and ACE-FTS

Fig. 10. Comparison of temperature profiles retrieved from SCIAMACHY with temperature products from Meridian Engineering Lidar