High Resolution Infrared Atmospheric Spectra: Solar Spectra Atlas and Laboratory Studies

通过地球大气层观测的太阳红外光谱，提供了大量有关大气微量气体的信息，它们的身份，以及从地面观察时它们在整个大气层中的数量。这些信息以太阳光谱中单个谱线位置(波长)的形式出现，并以任何给定的谱线从太阳光谱的背景中被吸收的强度的形式出现。每一条谱线都是某些分子或原子物种的标志。因此，通过灵敏的陆基或气球载光谱仪器，有可能测量大气中自然或人造气体的痕量水平，并观察随时间的变化。通过使用分辨率很高的光谱仪器，有可能观测到代表各种大气痕量气体的数百条谱线，但要做到这一点，需要有一份关于大气中存在的各种气体的精确波长的详细目录，以及通过大气层看到的太阳光谱本身的详细目录。这笔赠款支持在ATM-8315647和ATM-8609286补助金下进行的研究的扩展。它继续对以前赠款中收集的光谱数据进行分析和编目，并在第二和第三年进行进一步的实验室测量，以产生有关大气层的各种痕量气体的新的高分辨率光谱，包括据信影响平流层臭氧层的气体。这些新数据也将被分析和编目。将对复杂分子光谱进行理论分析，以帮助识别和解释。这项活动虽然本身不会对物理和化学科学产生新的见解，但却建立了一个不可或缺的参考工具，可以在其上进行更多的探索性研究。根据这笔赠款编制的太阳红外光谱地图集对所有从事太阳和地球大气红外光谱研究的科学家都很有用。这项工作将在配备了最先进的光谱仪器的实验室中进行。该研究小组在推动高分辨率光谱学在大气成分研究中的应用方面发挥的作用享誉国际。

The infrared spectrum of the sun, observed through the earth's atmosphere, affords a wealth of information about atmospheric trace gases, their identities, and their amounts in the whole atmosphere when observed from ground level. The information comes in the form of individual spectrum line positions (wavelengths) in the solar spectrum, and in the intensity with which any given spectral line is absorbed from the background of the solar spectrum. Each spectrum line is a signature of some molecular or atomic species. By sensitive ground-based, or balloon-borne, spectroscopic instrumentation it is thus possible to survey the atmosphere for trace levels of gases of natural or man-made origin, and to observe changes over time. By using spectroscopic instruments of very high resolution, it is possible to observe hundreds of spectral lines representing various atmospheric trace gases, but to do this requires a detailed catalogue of precise wavelengths of the various gases present in the atmosphere, and of the solar spectrum itself as seen through the atmosphere. This grant supports an extension of research done under grants ATM-8315647 and ATM-8609286. It continues the analysis and cataloguing of spectroscopic data gathered in those earlier grants and, in its second and third years, further laboratory measurements to produce new high-resolution spectra of individual trace gases of atmospheric interest, including gases believed to affect the stratospheric ozone layer. These new data will also be analyzed and catalogued. Theoretical analyses of the complex molecular spectra will be made as an aid to identification and interpretation. This activity, while not in itself yielding new insights into physical and chemical science, yet builds an indispensible reference tool on which more probing investigations can proceed. The atlas of solar infrared spectra being developed under this grant is useful to all scientists working on the infrared spectroscopy of the sun and of the earth's atmosphere. The work will be done in a laboratory equipped with state-of-the-art spectroscopic instrumentation. This research group enjoys an international reputation for its role in advancing the application of high-resolution spectroscopy to studies of atmospheric composition.