Optical absorption bands for gases in air

It appears that optical absorption data for gases in air is gathered in a laboratory, and atmospheric absorption is inferred from that data. Otherwise, how can someone measure and differentiate between the amount of absorption by carbon dioxide from the amount of absorption by water vapor over the same atmospheric optical path?

Gases have separate bands. Earth has black body radiation and these spectrum supposed to be continuous but from remote sensing we find some bands missing or decreased and that is due to gases present.

Thank you, Shyam. I am interested in mountain top to mountain top measurements across a valley where the amount of water vapor is continuously changing. My observations of the movement of super cold carbon dioxide evidenced by condensation of water vapor indicates that carbon dioxide sometimes moves as an invisible river flowing. The spectrum I want to observe is where the two absorption bands overlap.

Dear Wlhaynes

This is possible to detect using the sensing process called LIDAR. You can have some idea using thru beam sensors also. To detect flow, there are other processes that works similar to Doppler Radar but in optical zone.

You can only expect flow of all gases together and some diffusion flow for a particular gas is possible due to density difference or concentration difference.

Do you have enough funds for this experiment and where are you locates?

I am willing to help. Contact me on email sst (at) sensorstechnology (dot) com

Hi Shyam:

I guess I should know this, but is the black body radiation inherently uniform in magnitude and infinite in wavelength band so that absorption could be analyzed and the causes identified by observations from space? If it's not uniform and infinite, can it be otherwise precisely characterized to allow that analysis?

DickL

You can look at the sun light and let me know if it looks uniform to you, which is black body radiation from sun and clouds stop these and that is the measurement of water in clouds if you look from earth. If you are in satellite looking at earth then you will see radiation from earth if that side is warm due to day. It will be something like we see on moon. The structured distribution of temperature exists on earth and there is a standard picture of zero cloud area and full of cloud area and difference shows the clouds alone. You do not look at the temperature of small zone. If you look at game stadium flood lights then they look in numbers but if you look at the light on the ground then it is uniform. Even those objects have distribution in temperature end up giving a uniform spectrum which is a sum of all possible spectrum. It is possible to compute that sum of all spectrum and then measurement becomes much easier.

There is a subject called Photogrammetry which is part of the remote sensing in which you analyze the image of the earth in multiple wavelength to know the rocks, water, rivers, crops, buildings, resources inside the earth. It is all about the light received by the camera which is analyzed for different wavelengths.

http://www.nrsa.gov.in/

http://www.isprs.org/

http://www.gisdevelopment.net/downloads/photo/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photogrammetry

Shyam,

what's your opinion on astronomers using spectroscopy over great distances through unknown media?

Bob

Hubble Telescope was meant for such spectrum recording and data analysis on earth to understand the expanding universe theory. It proved that way to great extent.

Have you seen this research?

http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/ion4.html

On the learning page they have several charts of affected gasses in the upper atomsphere. If you guy could ge togeather and identify a way to charge the gases you could possible create an electron river for gases to move into the upper atomsphere where they belong quickly.

Weather crosses the USA west to east for the most part, Jet stream anyways. This is screaming at me postive charged electrons are racing to the sun rise from the sun set. I am still digesting many things I have read recently but I feel this is important research.

You are badly confused.

The plasma layer of the ionosphere is pretty thin. It also needs sun to ionize it. I hope you are not planning to make another sun. Even those million electrons per cm are too little. If they were too many then ionosphere should have formed a glow like sun all around the earth. Recombination and ionization is continuous processes there but too small to be seen on earth as glow.

1.6A current through a bulb makes about 10^19 electrons per second to flow through wire are far too greater than what is out there.

That is an interesting concept DW5B. Are you theorizing the replenishment f depleted gases?

Positively charged electrons called positrons are produced when 1.2MeV or greater energy gamma interacts with the nucleus of an atom and photon splits into electron and positron. This process is known as pair production in interaction of radiation with matter. Positron recombines with electron again and generates two photons. This process is called annihilation.