Molecular absorption in planetary atmospheres

Laboratory data on infrared absorption in the range 1 to 10 μ, at moderate resolution, have been used to obtain a simple analytical model for transmission through planetary atmospheres. This model takes into account the variation of the spectral line strength with temperature, which has been neglected in previous atmospheric transmission models. The analysis leads to a transmission equation involving parameters characterizing the atmospheric distribution of absorbing species and two parameters dependent on wavelength. The problem, including the distribution of the absorbing species, has been fully treated for the atmosphere of the earth. For other planets, since the type and distribution of absorbing species are not fully known, they are not treated completely. However, the form of the transmission equation is such that it should be useful in inferring the distribution of absorbing species from measurements by planetary probes.