Surface brightnesses at 6300-¿ measured by the visible airglow experiment on board the AE-E satellite have been inverted to obtain altitude profiles of volume emission rate. A morphological picture of the emission at low latitudes is developed and qualitatively interpreted in terms of the behavior of electric fields and neutral winds in the nighttime ionosphere. Global pictures of the emission are presented for solstice and equinox conditions between 1800 and 0400 LT. Observed regions of depleted and enhanced emission are in agreement with the emission pattern expected from the effect of E¿B drifts on the ionization. Other features observed are interpreted in terms of a transequatorial wind and the presence of a pressure maximum near local midnight. These data suggest that the location of the pressure bulge changes seasonally with respect to the geographic equator. Average bottomside electron density altitude profiles are derived from the 6300-¿ volume emisison profiles. The local time variation of the height of the peak electron density deduced from the airglow measurements is in agreement with incoherent scatter measurements made at Arecibo, Peurto Rico, during the same time period.