Ring effect studies: Rayleigh scattering, including molecular parameters for rotational Raman scattering, and the Fraunhofer spectrum

Abstract

Improved parameters for the description of Rayleigh scattering in air and for the detailed rotational Raman scattering component for scattering by O(2) and N(2) are presented for the wavelength range 200-1000 nm. These parameters enable more accurate calculations to be made of bulk molecular scattering and of the Ring effect for a variety of atmospheric radiative transfer and constituent retrieval applications. A solar reference spectrum with accurate absolute vacuum wavelength calibration, suitable for convolution with the rotational Raman spectrum for Ring effect calculations, has been produced at 0.01-nm resolution from several sources. It is convolved with the rotational Raman spectra of O(2) and N(2) to produce an atmospheric Ring effect source spectrum.