Tentative identification of the 780‐cm⁻¹ ν₄ band Q branch of chlorine nitrate in high‐resolution solar absorption spectra of the stratosphere

Absorption by the Q branch of the ν 4 band Of CIONO 2 at 780.2 cm −1 has been tentatively identified in a series of 0.02‐cm −1 ‐resolution balloon‐borne solar absorption spectra of the stratosphere. The spectral data were recorded at sunset from a float altitude of 33.5 km during a balloon flight from Holloman Air Force Base (32.8°N, 106.0°W) near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on March 23, 1981. A preliminary CIONO 2 vertical profile has been determined from the stratospheric spectra by using the technique of nonlinear least squares spectral curve fitting and new spectroscopic parameters deduced from high‐resolution laboratory spectra of CIONO 2 and O 3 .