Recent investigations of the atmospheric transmittance in the 15- to 25-μm spectral region have produced experimental results of the absorption of the water vapor continuum. From these results it is evident that the excessive absorption of the water vapor (the water continuum) cannot be explained simply by the theoretical continuum model based on the modified impact theory and the Van Vleck-Huber model of line broadening. The measured continuum absorption has spectral features similar to those roughly predicted by the water dimer theory. A quantitative agreement between the experimental results and the prediction according to the dimer theory was found.
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M. Paula Neumann (1994) studied this question.