Airborne observations of the Orion molecular hydrogen emission spectrum

The Orion near-infrared H2 emission spectrum was observed from an altitude of 12.5 km in order to measure line intensities free from interference by terrestrial H2O. For the peak source, the observations indicate that the differential extinction between 4126 and 4712 per cm is 0.59 + or -0.06 mag, and the relative line intensities are consistent with those expected from a homogeneous source in approximate LTE at 1540 + or -100 K. An anomalous ortho/para H2 abundance ratio of 3.5(+ or - 0.2):1 is found, and the estimated total luminosity in vibrationally excited H2 lines is 300 + or - 100 solar luminosities. Rough molecular abundance limits, based on the missing H2 Q(6) line and the good agreement between other line intensities and the LTE model, place the H2 region no deeper within OMC-1 than the IR cluster and no shallower than 50 percent of the depth to the cluster.