The extreme ultraviolet telescope on the Apollo-Soyuz mission observed the equatorial aurora from an altitude of 220 km on four separate occasions in July 1975 in quiet geomagnetic conditions (Ap=6). In all cases signals well above ambient background in the 50 to 150-¿, 114 to 150-¿, 170 to 600-¿, and 500 to 780-¿ bands were recorded as the spacecraft moved across the equator and the instrument viewed the atmosphere below it. The observed emissions are confined to a band roughly 10¿ to 20¿ in width, the peak emission occurring in the range ~-15¿ to +2¿ magnetic latitude. No enchancement in the 1350 to 1550-¿ channel was noted. The observed signals are interpreted as recombination radiation of energetic helium and, possibly, oxygen ions originating in the terrestrial ring current. |