The infrared spectrum of comet West 1976 VI, obtained during its 1976 apparition, is discussed and analyzed. The spectrum covers the region 0.9-2.5 μm at a resolution of 4.6 cm-1. The authors investigate the comet's thermal emission spectrum and its solar reflection continuum, search for absorption features due to ices, search for emission and absorption features by parent molecules, and briefly discuss the observed emission features from molecular radicals in the coma. They derive approximate column densities for CN and C2, assuming a simple resonance fluorescence model.
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Johnson et al. (1983) studied this question.