Juan R.
Pardo-Carrion
Main Results
Atmospheric Opacity derived from
Fourier Transform Spectroscopy at the CSO
Broadband atmospheric transmission spectra obtained on Mauna Kea, Hawaii (4100 m. above sea level) on UT April 1st 1998 and July 1st 1999 under very similar pressure and temperature conditions have allowed us to measure and separate the atmospheric submillimeter absorption spectrum into three terms: resonant lines, non-resonant absorption of the dry atmosphere due to collision-induced mechanisms involving electric multipoles, and continuum-like water vapor opacity.
You can get more information about this work by downloading paper 16 from my publications list.
Calibrated high resolution FTS zenith spectrum obtained on Apr/1/1998, shown in terms of opacity (logarithmic scale).
(Upper Panel) Solid lines:
A non-linear least-squares fit of this spectrum was performed using a radiative transfer model (ATM). The fit resulted on 0.185 mm of water vapor column above the site. The different opacity contributions which add up to give the best-fit curve are plotted separately (solid lines of different colors):
* Water vapor lines, in green.
* O2 lines + isotopic O2 lines + vb excited O2 lines + dry continuum, in red.
* H2O pseudocontinuum (far wing of lines centered above 5 THz), in light blue.
* Minor gas opacities from the fit are not shown for clarity of the figure.
(Lower Panel) Histogram showing the fit residual.