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M.E. Mickelson, B.P. Leslie, E.L. Hogue (Denison Univ.)
The quality of spectra recovered from planetary sources continue to improve. High resolution spectroscopic instruments on space craft as well as orbiting and ground based telescopes are capable of both high spatial and spectral resolution allowing detailed characterization of individual spectral lines. Improved atmospheric modeling and the retrieval of pressure and temperature profiles can be achieved by having accurate laboratory information on pressure broadening, line shapes and density shifts of key molecular spectra. This laboratory research has focused on improving the precision of pressure shift measurements by applying FM spectroscopic techniques to diode lasers coupled to long optical paths. Some result will be given for molecular hydrogen and water vapor in the 815nm region.
This work has been supported in part by NASA Grant NAG5-4341 and by Denison University.