  Phase Resolved Optical Emission Spectroscopy (PROES) measurements combined
with 1d3v Particle-in-Cell/Monte Carlo Collisions (PIC/MCC) simulations are
used to study the electron power absorption and excitation/ionization dynamics
in capacitively coupled plasmas (CCPs) in mixtures of neon and oxygen gases.
The study is performed for a geometrically symmetric CCP reactor with a gap
length of 2.5 cm at a driving frequency of 10~MHz and a peak-to-peak voltage of
350 V. The pressure of the gas mixture is varied between 15 Pa and 500 Pa,
while the neon/oxygen concentration is tuned between 10% and 90%. For all
discharge conditions, the spatio-temporal distribution of the electron-impact
excitation rate from the Ne ground state into the Ne $\rm{2p^53p_0}$ state
measured by PROES and obtained from PIC/MCC simulations show good qualitative
agreement. Based on the emission/excitation patterns, multiple operation
regimes are identified. Localized bright emission features at the bulk
boundaries, caused by local maxima in the electronegativity are found at high
pressures and high O$_2$ concentrations. The relative contributions of the
ambipolar and the Ohmic electron power absorption are found to vary strongly
with the discharge parameters: the Ohmic power absorption is enhanced by both
the high collisionality at high pressures and the high electronegativity at low
pressures. In the wide parameter regime covered in this study, the PROES
measurements are found to accurately represent the ionization dynamics, i.e.,
the discharge operation mode. This work represents also a successful
experimental validation of the discharge model developed for neon-oxygen CCPs.
