Examination of theory for bow shock ultraviolet rocket experiments - I

Comparison is made between the results obtained from modifications to a state-of-the-art radiation code and bow shock uv radiation data obtained from recent flight experiments. Initial predictions of the radiation did not yield satisfactory comparison with the first flight experiment flown at 3.5 km/s between altitudes of 40-70 km, despite improvements to the original flow model. It is found that characterizing the NO excited state population with the translational temperature, rather than the vibrational temperature, yields better comparison to the flight data. Comparison of bow shock data from the second flight, flown at 5.1 km/s at altitudes of 70-90 km, shows that improvements in either flow or radiation modeling are still needed, particularly at high altitudes.