Comparison of HITRAN Calculated Spectra with Laboratory Measurements of the 820, 940, 1130, and 1370 nm Water Vapor Bands

Several groups have recently been working to improve the near-infrared spectrum of water vapor on HITRAN. The unit-conversion errors found by Giver, et al have now been corrected on the recently released HITRAN-2000. The most important aspect of this article for atmospheric absorption was increasing all the HITRAN-1996 intensities of the 940 nm band by nearly 15%. New intensity measurements of this band by Brown, et al (submitted to J. Mol. Spec.) have now been included in the latest HITRAN. However, Belmiloud, et al discuss new data in the 633-1175 nm region which they expect will substantially increase the calculated absorption of solar radiation by water vapor. They suggest the 4 bands at 725, 820, 940, and 1130 nm are all stronger than the sum of the line intensities currently on HITRAN. For the 725 and 820 nm bands, their recommended intensity increases are 10% and 15%, about the same as previously noted by Grossmann and Browell and Ponsardin and Browell. Belmiloud, et al only suggest a 6% increase for the 940 nm. band over the corrected HITRAN-1996 intensities, but a large 38% increase for the 1130 nm band. The new data discussed by Belmiloud, et al have now been published in greater detail by Schermaul, et al. The intensity increase for the 1130 nm band discussed by Belmiloud, et al is very substantial; it is important to quickly determine if the HITRAN intensity values are in error by as much as they claim. Only intensity errors for the strong lines could result in the total band intensity being in error by such a large amount. To quickly get a number of spectra of the entire near-infrared region from 650 to 1650 nm, we used the Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer with our 25-meter base path White absorption cell. This moderate resolution spectrometer is a flight instrument that has flown on the Sandia Twin Otter for the ARESE 11 experiment. The measured band profiles were then compared to calculated spectra using the latest HITRAN line intensities, convolved with the instrumental resolution. Our spectra for the 725 and 820 nm bands show somewhat more absorption than the HITRAN simulations, about as expected by Belmiloud, el al. The total absorption for our spectra of the 940 nm band agrees well with the HITRAN simulations; this HITRAN spectral region now has the new measurements of Brown, et al. Our spectra of the 1130 nm band have somewhat more absorption than the HITRAN simulations, but not as much as the 38% intensity increase for this band suggested by Belmiloud, et al. An intensity increase of about 20% on average would be more compatible with our data. Finally, our spectra of the 1370 nm band are fairly well modeled by the HITRAN simulations, despite the known problems of the older HITRAN data in this region.