This work combines laboratory astrophysics with basic rate process models in order to provide a broadly applicable research methodology for the aeronomy and planetary atmospheres community. The research project will: 1) investigate the physical chemistry controlling the thermal properties of the atomic oxygen dominated upper thermosphere, 2) establish accurate models of rate processes for species of primary importance to aeronomy, utilizing wherever possible, a combination of experimental and theoretical quantities for each process, and 3) establish an experimental design for the measurement of atomic nitrogen electron impact cross sections, with an accompanying atomic model for both N and N+.
