A line-by-line calculation of the continuum absorption coefficient with the wing line contour describing the absorption in different windows outside of the water vapor bands in the 4000–8000 cm-1 spectral region is presented. The continuum absorption calculated with the line wing contour characterizing the absorption in the 5800–6400 cm-1 window is shown to be close to the total absorption. Hence it follows that the absorption in the 5000–5500 cm-1 and 6900–7700 cm-1 bands is almost entirely due to metastable dimers and free complexes.
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