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With the purpose of obtaining the real and imaginary parts of the complex refractive index N; = n + ik, we have made quantitative measurements of spectral transmission and reflection of sulfuric acid solutions in the visible and near infrared. On the basis of the results, we have obtained values for n throughout the entire region and values of k in the near infrared together with upper limits for k in the visible region. These optical constants can be used to interpret the results of polarization studies of solar radiation that has been scattered by the clouds of Venus. We have Kramers-Kronig phase-shift analysis to obtain values of n and k from reflection measurements in the intermediate infrared region (400-4000 cm(-1)). Our measurements were made at 300 K on sulfuric acid solutions having concentrations by weight of 95.6, 84.5, 75, 50, 38, and 25%. If the particles in the Venus clouds consist of liquid droplets of sulfuric acid at a temperature of 250 K, comparison of existing Venus data with our data suggests that the acid concentration is probably higher than 70%. Various possibilities are discussed.
Palmer et al. (Wed,) studied this question.