ON THE CALCULATION OF ATMOSPHERIC TRANSMISSION FUNCTIONS FOR THE INFRARED

Abstract

An atmospheric transmission function is derived for spectral lines of arbitrary line intensities and line spacing. It is shown that the variability of the exponent occurring in this and other atmospheric transmission functions can be taken into account by an arithmetical averaging of the mixing-ratio–line-intensity factor over pressure intervals as large as 100 mb. Elsasser's suggestion of a constant factor to convert parallel-beam transmission to diffuse transmission appears to be justified. Energy-transfer considerations indicate a factor of 1.60.