Infrared laboratory studies of synthetic planetary atmospheres

The initial stages of the research were involved with a test of Burch's law of multiplicative transmittance for mixed absorbing gases when their lines are broadened by H2 and He, which are constituents of the atmospheres of the major planets. The broadening of individual lines in the CO fundamental by various gases was investigated. Line strength and half-width for individual CO lines were studied as a function of temperature. Measurements of total band absorptance as a function of absorber thickness and total effective pressure were made at various temperatures for bands of CO and N2O. Attempts were made to develop a phenomenological theory of line broadening that would account for the phenomena observed for the CO fundamental and those reported for more highly polar gases. Laboratory measurements of nitric acid vapor absorptance were compared with balloon measurements in arriving at an estimate of the quantity of nitric acid vapor present in the earth's atmosphere in the region of the ozone layer.