Products of the reaction of 8 km/s N( 4 S) and O 2

Reactions involving fast nitrogen atoms are of importance both in the upper atmosphere and in defining the near‐field environment around orbiting spacecraft. We present the first quantitative study of the distribution of vibrationally excited ground state NO produced in the reaction of 8 km/s N atoms with O 2 . A pulsed beam of energetic nitrogen atoms was interacted with thermal oxygen molecules under single‐collision conditions in a crossed beam configuration. The fundamental and first overtone band emissions of the reaction product NO (X 2 Π) were measured using both band‐pass‐filtered radiometers and a circular variable filter. The spectrally resolved emissions were analyzed to determine the nascent NO vibrational distribution and the vibrational state‐specific reaction cross sections. The present results are compared with earlier measurements performed at thermal energies and contrasted with theoretical predictions.