LABORATORY INTENSITY MEASUREMENTS FOR HD AND $CH_{4}$ ABSORPTION LINES OF ASTROPHYSICAL INTEREST
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Date
1977
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Ohio State University
Abstract
The abundances of deuterium bearing molecules in the atmospheres of the outer planets have $cosmological^{1}$ significance as well as provide information about atmospheric $dynamics.^{2}$ In support of a program to determine the abundance of the HD molecule in these planetary atmospheres, laboratory measurements have been made to determine the strengths of the 4--0 P(2), P(1), R(0), and 5--0 R(1) absorption lines. These measurements were made with a PEPSIOS spectrometer used in conjunction with a multiple traversal absorption cell. The high luminosity-resolution product of the PEPSIOS and accuracy afforded by photon counting techniques permit the measurement of very weak lines. Telescopic spectra obtained with the PEPSIOS of Jupiter and Saturn in narrow spectral regions encompassing the HD lines show other, sometimes Interfering, absorption lines. Laboratory work indicates that some of these features are due to the methane molecule. In particular, a 1% absorption line at 7467.22 {\AA} observed in the astronomical data has also been recorded in the laboratory. The intensity of this line was measured as a function of temperature and a Jovian $CH_{4}$ abundance derived.
Description
$^{1}$D. N. Schramm and R. V. Wagoner, Physics Today 27, 41 (1974). $^{2}$R. Beer and F. W. Taylor, Astrophys. J. 179, 309 (1973). This research was supported by the Atmospheric Research Section of the National Science Foundation. Research Corporation is also acknowledged for its earlier funding of instrumentation at Denison University which helped to make the work possible.
Author Institution: Department of Physics, Denison University; Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin
Author Institution: Department of Physics, Denison University; Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin