Contribution of bound, metastable and free states of bimolecular complexes to collision-induced intensity of absorption

Accurate measurements and temperature dependence of the water vapor self-continuum absorption in the 2.1 μm atmospheric window

In spite of its importance for the evaluation of the Earth radiative budget, thus for climate change, very few measurements of the water vapor continuum are available in the near infrared atmospheric windows especially at temperature conditions relevant for our atmosphere. In addition, as a result of the difficulty to measure weak broadband absorption signals, the few available measurements show large disagreements. We report here accurate measurements of the water vapor self-continuum absorption in the 2.1 μm window by Optical Feedback Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (OF-CEAS) for two spectral points located at the low energy edge and at the center of the 2.1 μm transparency window, at 4302 and 4723 cm(-1), respectively. Self-continuum cross sections, CS, were retrieved with a few % relative uncertainty, from the quadratic dependence of the spectrum base line level measured as a function of water vapor pressure, between 0 and 16 Torr. At 296 K, the CS value at 4302 cm(-1) is found 40% higher than predicted by the MT_CKD V2.5 model, while at 4723 cm(-1), our value is 5 times larger than the MT_CKD value. On the other hand, these OF-CEAS CS values are significantly smaller than recent measurements by Fourier transform spectroscopy at room temperature. The temperature dependence of the self-continuum cross sections was also investigated for temperatures between 296 K and 323 K (23-50 °C). The derived temperature variation is found to be similar to that derived from previous Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) measurements performed at higher temperatures, between 350 K and 472 K. The whole set of measurements spanning the 296-472 K temperature range follows a simple exponential law in 1/T with a slope close to the dissociation energy of the water dimer, D0 ≈ 1100 cm(-1).

Thermally Averaged Spectroscopic Parameters of the Weakly Bound Dimers

Spectroscopic parameters in an ensemble of the weakly bound dimers are derived making use of the quantum and classical statistical average over thermally excited rovibrational states. Argon dimers and oxygen dimers are taken as examples. It is shown that thermally averaged characteristics of dimers rapidly change as temperature of a gas rises. In an ensemble of quasi-diatomic tightly bound dimers, the high-temperature limit of the effective dissociation energy amounts to roughly D(0)/3, where D(0) is the dissociation energy from the ground state. It is demonstrated that the effective rotational B(eff)(T) constant for the oxygen dimers statistically averaged at near room temperature is merely one half of the ground state B(0) value. This conclusion is in agreement with recent spectroscopic observations. Rotationally resolved spectroscopic probe of (O(2))(2) in the slit-nozzle expansion resulted in B(0) = 0.095 cm(-1), while bandshape analysis of the room-temperature collision-induced absorption in the oxygen fundamental allowed an estimate of B(eff) approximately 0.038 cm(-1). The role of anisotropy of intermolecular interaction and the formation of various types of metastable dimeric states are discussed. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Intensity and Bandshapes of Collision-Induced Absorption by CO(2) in the Region of the Fermi Doublet

The carbon dioxide dimer spectroscopic patterns are retrieved from the analysis of collision-induced absorption (CIA) spectral bandshape at room temperature. It is shown that the use of the simplified model based on the symmetric-top approximation allows roughly consistent simulation of the observed (CO(2))(2) dimer spectrum. The rotational constants obtained can be considered as effective thermally averaged constants which characterize dimeric structure, strongly distorted from the ground state. The overall CIA bandshape and the integrated intensity of absorption are broken down into partial contributions from tightly bound and metastable dimers and free-pair states. This approach is shown to be in agreement with a wide range of independent spectroscopic and thermodynamic data. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.