The 2009 University of Toronto Noble Lectures

The Physics of Atmospheric Gas Measurements

April 27 - May 1, 2009

The lectures present the underlying physics issues that have had to be addressed in order to successfully make quantitative atmospheric measurements, particularly when absorption and emission signatures are very small components of the spectroscopic signature, in the face of significant spectroscopic and scattering interferences.

Dr. Kelly Chance

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophyics

Recommended reading

• Spectra of Atoms and Molecules, Bernath
• Quantitative Molecular Spectroscopy and Gas Emissivities, Penner
• The Physics of Atmospheres, Houghton
• Aeronomy of the Middle Atmosphere, Brasseur and Solomon
• Atmospheric Radiation: Theoretical Basis, Goody and Yung
• An Introduction to Atmospheric Radiation, Liou
• A First Course in Atmospheric Radiation, Petty
• Microwave Spectroscopy, Townes and Schawlow
• Principles of Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry, Goody
• Photochemistry of Planetary Atmospheres, Yung and DeMore

And, of course, the standard spectroscopic works by Herzberg:

• Atomic Spectra and Atomic Structure
• Spectra of Diatomic Molecules
• Infrared and Raman Spectra
• Electronic Spectra of Polyatomic Molecules
• The Spectra and Structures of Simple Free Radicals: An Introduction to Molecular Spectroscopy

Lecture outline and presentations

My Harvard EPS-238 website

• Reference data and computer code

• Class notes and references