The amplitude, the temperature dependence, and the physical origin of the water vapour absorption continuum are a long-standing issue in molecular spectroscopy with direct impact in atmospheric and planetary sciences. In recent years, we have determined the self-continuum absorption of water vapour at different spectral points of the atmospheric windows at 4.0, 2.1, 1.6, and 1.25µm, by highly sensitive cavity-enhanced laser techniques. These accurate experimental constraints have been used to adjust the last version (3.2) of the semi-empirical MT_CKD model (Mlawer-Tobin_Clough-Kneizys-Davies), which is widely incorporated in atmospheric radiative-transfer codes. In the present work, the self-continuum cross-sections, CS, are newly determined at 3.3µm (3007cm−1) and 2.0µm (5000cm−1) by optical-feedback-cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (OFCEAS) and cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS), respectively. These new data allow extending the spectral coverage of the 4.0 and 2.1µm windows, respectively, and testing the recently released 3.2 version of the MT_CKD continuum. By considering high temperature literature data together with our data, the temperature dependence of the self-continuum is also obtained.
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT) is an international scientific journal dedicated to the publication and discussion of advances in remote sensing, in-situ and laboratory measurement techniques for the constituents and properties of the Earth’s atmosphere.
The main subject areas comprise the development, intercomparison and validation of measurement instruments and techniques of data processing and information retrieval for gases, aerosols, and clouds. The manuscript types considered for peer-reviewed publication are research articles, review articles, and commentaries.
AMT has an innovative two-stage publication process involving the scientific discussion forum Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions (AMTD), which has been designed to:
In the first stage, papers that pass a rapid access peer-review are immediately published on the Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions (AMTD) website. They are then subject to Interactive Public Discussion, during which the referees' comments (anonymous or attributed), additional short comments by other members of the scientific community (attributed) and the authors' replies are also published in AMTD. In the second stage, the peer-review process is completed and, if accepted, the final revised papers are published in AMT. To ensure publication precedence for authors, and to provide a lasting record of scientific discussion, AMTD and AMT are both ISSN-registered, permanently archived and fully citable.
Dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the geosciences and the planetary and space sciences for the benefit of humanity.
