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.
The infrared fundamental band and the five strongest near-infrared and visible electronic bands of gaseous oxygen were studied from 90 to 115 K with path lengths up to 140 m in two low-temperature multiple-traversal absorption cells. The profile of the fundamental band is in good agreement with the theory of quadrupole-induced absorption except for a low-intensity residual in the Q-branch region. Although the electronic bands are less amenable to complete analysis, the general validity of a Boltzmann relation in their intensity distributions confirms their collision-induced nature. The temperature variation of the integrated band intensities is indicative of quadrupole induction for the fundamental and of overlap induction for the electronic bands; a somewhat too sharp rise at low temperatures may be due to the neglect of the quadrupole–quadrupole coupling in evaluating the pair distribution function.
Absorption spectra of gas-phase molecular oxygen and zero air at temperatures of 223 and 283 K have been measured in the laboratory using a coolable multipass-optics gas cell and Fourier transform spectroscopy in the wavelength range 455 to 830 nm (12,000–22,000 cm−1). Net absorption cross sections of the O2A−, B−, and γ-bands at <0.002 nm spectral resolution, and pressures of 100 and 1000 hPa zero air have been determined. Binary absorption cross sections of the collision-induced O4 bands at <0.18 nm spectral resolution and a pressure of 1000 hPa pure oxygen have been determined, with corrections for the O2 γ-band absorption. Calculated integrated absorption intensities and, for the O2A− and B−bands, “effective” Einstein A-coefficients are compared with previous literature values.
The absorption spectrum of O2 and O2‐O2 collision pairs were measured over the wavelength range from 330 to 1140 nm using pressures of O2 from 1 to 55 atm at 298 K. Absorption cross sections, pressure dependences, band centers, and full widths at half maximum of the observed absorption bands centered at 343.4, 360.5, 380.2, 446.7, 477.3, 532.2, 577.2, 630.0, 688, 762, and 1065.2 nm are reported. The absorption bands centered at 360.5, 380.2, and 477.3 nm were also measured at 196 K and their temperature dependences were characterized.
