Molecular Dications and the Auroral Mystery Feature: Measurements on Nitrogen

Experiments in progress at the ASU ion trapping facility will provide atomic and molecular data for N$^{+}$, N$_{2}^{++}$, and N$_{2}$, specifically, measurements of: the radiative lifetime of the $^{5}$S metastable level of N$^{+}$, the dissociation rate of N$_{2}^{++}$, electron capture rates from molecular nitrogen for both these ions, and the cross section for dissociative electron impact ionization of molecular nitrogen into metastable $^{5}$S N$^{+}$. Ions are created in a radiofrequency ion trap by electron bombardment on nitrogen gas, and both the number of stored ions and the UV radiation emitted by the stored ion population (from decaying metastable N$^{+}(^{5}$S) ions and N$_{2}^{++}$+N$_{2}$ reactions) are measured as a function of time. Preliminary data and results will be presented