Sodium layer

With sodium layer, Eng. Sodium Layer is called a field in the mesosphere, which contains unbound, non-ionized sodium atoms. The area is typically at a height of 80-105 km and has a vertical extent of about 5 km. Among them, sodium is usually chemically bonded, most often ionized as sodium oxide, about it. The sodium atoms are located predominantly in the excited state and emit light yellowish at a wavelength of 589 nm, the Fraunhofer sodium D line. This radiation is also known as glow night. The sodium comes from the abrasion of meteors.

The sodium layer was discovered in 1929 by Melvin Slipher Vesto 1939 Sydney Chapman suggested a reaction cycle to explain the night before annealing.

In astronomy, the sodium layer is used to create artificial laser guide stars, the basis of which the degradation of the image quality of telescopes due to atmospheric turbulence ( seeing ) can be compensated.