Line shape in far wings and water vapor absorption in a broad temperature interval

Abstract Despite the long-term history of extensive studies on water vapor continuum absorption it can hardly be said that an exhaustive consideration has been given to this problem both from experimental and theoretical viewpoints. For instance, deficiency remains concerning the precise data on the absorption coefficient as a function of temperature, especially at reduced temperatures. New experimental data on water vapor continuum absorption in the 800–1250 cm −1 spectral region at temperatures from 311 to 363 K have become available quite recently [15] . Two advanced variants of the line wing theory – asymptotic and quasistatic – are briefly outlined. The asymptotic line wing theory has been used successfully to describe the absorption coefficient both at elevated temperatures of the Baranov study and at the temperatures of earlier experimental data. Comparison is made with the results obtained from the quasistatic line wing theory.