The far infrared continuum absorption of water vapour

The far infrared transmittance of H₂O has been measured in the laboratory. A gas correlation radiometric technique was adopted for comparison with atmospheric H₂O measurements made by the Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder on Nimbus 7. Atmospheric paths were simulated in a multipass cell containing pure H₂O and H₂O + N₂ mixtures at various pressures and temperatures. A spectral transmittance model was developed using the simple Lorentz line shape and the HITRAN molecular line database and was compared with the transmittance measurements. The self-broadened continuum absorption, spectrally averaged over a passband centred at 7.85 THz (262 cm^-1), was determined and confirmed the continuum model of Clough et al. The foreign-broadened continuum was smaller by a factor of at least 19.