Fine Structure of the Red System of Atmospheric Oxygen Bands.

Abstract

Improved high-dispersion spectrograms of the red bands of atmospheric oxygen have been obtained, with air paths ranging from 30 meters to about 100 km. For unbiended lines of medium intensity the wave lengths have been determined with an accuracy of about one part in seven million, and as a result the molecular constants of the molecules, ~ 016018, and 016017 in the ~; ground state and the ~ excited state, have been evaluated much more precisely than previously. Careful analysis shows a variation in the triplet splitting of the ~ state which is dependent both on the vibrational quantum number and on the mass of the molecule, in addition to the variation due to the change of rotational energy