Introduction of Water-Vapor Broadening Parameters and Their Temperature-Dependent Exponents Into the HITRAN Database: Part I-CO2, N2O, CO, CH4, O2, NH3, and H2S.

The amount of water vapor in the terrestrial atmosphere is highly variable both spatially and temporally. In the tropics it sometimes constitutes 4-5% of the atmosphere. At the same time collisional broadening of spectral lines by water vapor is much larger than that by nitrogen and oxygen. Therefore, in order to accurately characterize and model spectra of the atmospheres with significant amounts of water vapor, the line-shape parameters for spectral lines broadened by water vapor are required. In this work, the pressure-broadening parameters (and their temperature-dependent exponents) due to the pressure of water vapor for spectral lines of CO2, N2O, CO, CH4, O2, NH3, and H2S from both experimental and theoretical studies were collected and carefully reviewed. A set of semiempirical models based on these collected data was proposed and then used to estimate water broadening and its temperature dependence for all transitions of selected molecules in the HITRAN2016 database.

Quantum mechanical study of the 16O + 18O18O → 16O18O + 18O exchange reaction: Integral cross sections and rate constants.

The isotopic exchange reaction, 16O + 18O18O → 16O18O + 18O, involving excited ozone, O 3 * , as intermediate complex, was investigated by means of a time independent quantum mechanical approach using the TKTHS potential energy surface (PES) [V. G. Tyuterev et al., J. Chem. Phys. 139, 134307 (2013)] of ozone. State-to-state integral cross sections were calculated for collision energies lower than 0.4 eV. Then specific and thermal rate constants were computed between 10 K and 350 K using these cross sections. The full quantum thermal rate constant is found to be in better agreement with the most recent experimental data than with previous studies where other O3 PESs were employed, confirming therefore the higher accuracy of the TKTHS PES. However, the present theoretical thermal rate constant still remains below the measured rate, maybe due to the neglect of non-adiabtic couplings.

Does the "reef structure" at the ozone transition state towards the dissociation exist? New insight from calculations and ultrasensitive spectroscopy experiments.

Since the discovery of anomalies in ozone isotope enrichment, several fundamental issues in the dynamics linked to the shape of the potential energy surface in the transition state region have been raised. The role of the reeflike structure on the minimum energy path is an intricate question previously discussed in the context of chemical experiments. In this Letter, we bring strong arguments in favor of the absence of a submerged barrier from ultrasensitive laser spectroscopy experiments combined with accurate predictions of highly excited vibrations up to nearly 95% of the dissociation threshold.