Interferometric Measurements of Atmospheric Species

Abstract

A number of problems of current interest in atmospheric chemistry have drawn attention to the desirability of obtaining data on the atmospheric concentration of many compounds present in the atmosphere at very low levels. Many of these species have moderate to strong infrared absorption bands. The possibility exists of using infrared techniques to obtain data on the presence and concentration of these species in the atmosphere. In an initial attempt to assess possible detection limits for a given species one generally assumes that the absorption will be weak and in the linear region. Under those conditions the following expression holds:

$$\int_{\vartriangle \nu } {A\left( \nu \right)d\nu = Su}$$

((1))