The collisions between two oxygen molecules give rise to O4 absorption in the Earth atmosphere. O4 absorption is relevant to atmospheric transmission and Earth’s radiation budget. O4 is further used as a reference gas in Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) applications to infer properties of clouds and aerosols. The O4 absorption cross section spectrum of bands centered at 343, 360, 380, 446, 477, 532, 577 and 630 nm is investigated in dry air and oxygen as a function of temperature (203–295°K), and at 820 mbar pressure. We characterize the temperature dependent O4 line shape and provide high precision O4 absorption cross section reference spectra that are suitable for atmospheric O4 measurements. The peak absorption cross-section is found to increase at lower temperatures due to a corresponding narrowing of the spectral band width, while the integrated cross-section remains constant (within o3%, the uncertainty of our measurements). The enthalpy of formation is determined to be ΔH250 = -0.12±0.12 kJ mol-1, which is essentially zero, and supports previous assignments of O4 as collision induced absorption (CIA). At 203°K, van der Waals complexes (O2-dimer) contribute less than 0.14% to the O4 absorption in air. We conclude that O2-dimer is not observable in the Earth atmosphere, and as a consequence the atmospheric O4 distribution is for all practical means and purposes independent of temperature, and can be predicted with an accuracy of better than 10-3 from knowledge of the oxygen concentration profile.
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Two collision-induced absorption features of oxygen have been investigated by means of the laser-based cavity ring-down technique at pressures between 0 and 1000 hPa and at temperatures in the range 184–294 K. Peak cross sections, resonance widths and integrated cross sections, as well as spectral profiles, have been determined for the broad O2O2–O2O2 resonances centered at 477 and 577 nm. Results are compared with previous measurements to establish an updated temperature dependence for the cross sections of both resonances, yielding integrated cross sections, that exhibit a minimum near 200 K and that increase in a near-linear fashion in the atmospherically relevant range of 200–300 K. A significant increase in the widths of the resonance profiles upon temperature increase is firmly established. Parameters and temperature-dependent trends for the shape and strengths of the resonances are produced, that can be implemented in cloud retrieval in atmospheric Earth observation.
