Molecular Absorption

Remote sensing (from ground-, airplane-, balloon-, or satellite-based platforms) is a powerful and versatile tool to estimate profiles of atmospheric temperature, trace gases, etc. and has been established as indispensable for research on climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion etc. An essential prerequisite is the accurate and complete knowledge of the absorption properties of the atmospheric constituents, i.e. the data are mandatory to link the characteristic spectral signature obtained by remote sensing to the trace gas distribution in the atmosphere. Laboratory spectroscopy in support of atmospheric remote sensing has greatly helped to compile several molecular spectroscopic databases of line parameters (i.e., line positions, line strengths, pressure broadening coefficients etc.) or absorption cross sections, e.g., Rothman et al. [2005]; Jacquinet-Husson et al. [2005]; Pickett et al. [1998].