Infrared and visible wavelength absorption by water vapour

水蒸气是我们大气层中最重要的物质，它既吸收入射的阳光，又吸收离开地球表面的热量（所谓的温室效应）。因此，彻底和可靠地了解水如何吸收所有波长的辐射对于理解、建模和预测大气过程绝对至关重要。例如，可靠的水蒸发预测对于气候变化模型、利用卫星研究大气中痕量物种的浓度以及模拟通过大气进行的通信至关重要。不幸的是，水吸收光的方式是（独特的？）复杂的，尽管巨大的科学努力，仍然不够好地确定了许多大气目的。提案人小组已经开发了基于量子力学的严格应用的理论程序，这使得对水蒸发的理解和解释取得了重大进展。这些程序还不够精确，不能用计算机完全解决这个问题。然而，当与现代实验室实验相结合时，应该可以创建一个确定的水蒸发数据库。目前的建议是确保可靠地提供关于水蒸气在广泛波长范围内吸收光的数据，特别是集中在太阳辐射最大的波长上。这将通过在UCL进行的理论工作和协调世界各地使用实验室测量进行水吸附的领先实验室来实现。将根据实验室和大气测量结果对所得数据进行广泛测试，以确保数据可靠。

Water vapour is the most important species in our atmosphere for both absorbing incoming sunlight and for absorbing heat leaving the earth's surface (the so-called greenhouse effect). Thus a thorough and reliable understanding of how water absorbs radiation at all wavelengths is absolutely crucial to understanding, modelling and making predictions about atmospheric processes. For example reliable predictions of water absorptions are essential for models of climate change, for studies of the concentration of trace species in the atmosphere using satellites and for modelling communications through the atmosphere. Unfortunately the way water absorbs light is (uniquely?) complicated and, despite huge scientific effort, remains insufficiently well determined for many atmospheric purposes. The proposers group have developed theoretical procedure based on the rigorous application of quantum mechanics which have allowed a significant advance in the understanding and interpretation of water absorptions. These procedures are not yet accurate enough to give a complete solution of the problem using computers. However when combined with modern laboratory experiments it should be possible to create a definitive database of water absorptions. The present proposal is ensure the reliable provision of data on the absorption of light by water vapour over a wide range of wavelengths, concentrating especially on the wavelengths where solar radiation is the largest. This will be achieved by theoretical work performed at UCL and by coordinating the leading laboratories worldwide who work on water absorptions using laboratory measurements. Extensive testing of the resulting data against laboratory and atmospheric measurements will be performed to ensure that the data is reliable.