Effective photodissociation cross sections for molecular oxygen and nitric oxide in the Schumann-Runge bands.

Abstract

Simple polynomial representations of the altitude and zenith angle dependence of effective photodissociation cross sections for molecular oxygen and nitric oxide in the Schumann-Runge band region are presented. Longward of approx. 202 nm, the atmosphere is optically thin and the effective cross sections are well correlated with local temperature. Atmospheric transmission values and O2 and NO photodissociation rates calculated using the parameterized effective cross sections are in good agreement with the results of the high spectral resolution computations of Frederick and Hudson.-from Authors