L. VEGARD. 



M.-N. Kl. 



Table 1\' 



At the height of 110 km. the pressure of Nitrogen should be 

 0,055 dyn cm-, and for H and He 10,25 and 0,494 respectively. But if 

 this value for the N-pressure was nearly right, the auroral spectral analvsis 

 would show that the pressure of H and He could not be greater than 

 0,0037 and 0,015 respectiveh-, or the hydrogen pressure could only be 

 about ^ 10000, and the He pressure onl}- a ^ lOOO-part of that assumed by 

 Wegener. 



When the values of the pressures of H and He are given at 1 10 km., 

 we can find the pressure at other heights, provided that we known the 

 temperature. In table \' is given the variation of the H and He pressure 

 above 100 km. provided that we put the pressure at 100 km. equal to 

 0,0037 and 0,018 for the two gases respectively. But we notice that 

 going upwards the pressure of H and He will alreadv, at a height of 

 120 — 130 km., overtake that of Nitrogen. We should get Nitrogen and 

 Helium lines as soon as we got a bit further up. In consequense, we 

 should expect to find a change in the appearance of the auroral rays when 

 they are seen to pass from heights of, say, 3 — 400 km. down to about 

 110 km. But no such change is to be noticed. And it seems as if there 

 should not be any possibility of the existence of a H- and He-la3-er in the 

 upper strata of the atmosphere. 



Now we may be aware of the possibility that our calculations of the 

 Nitrogen pressures are based on false assumptions with regard to the 

 temperature distribution. 



