Airglow Lines

In the ultraviolet, the sky background contains important contributions from airglow lines, which vary from day to night and as a function of HST orbital position. Airglow lines may be an important consideration for spectroscopic observations at wavelengths near the lines. Both FUSE and HUT observed a variety of FUV airglow lines which may be present in COS data.

We have received requests for high-S/N observations of the geocoronal Lyman-alpha line profile observed with the G130M and G140L gratings. Such observations would allow users to model and subtract the line wings from their spectra. On this page, we provide a listing of both deliberate and serendipitous airglow observations. If you discover any others, please let us know through the HST Help Desk. To retrieve these datasets please use the HST archive.

Observations and Templates

Last Updated: 11/15/2023

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