Synthetic high-resolution near-IR spectra of the Sun for planetary data reductions made from ATMOS/Spacelab-3 and Atlas-3 data

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2007.07.006 Byline: Haingja Seo, Sang J. Kim, Sungwon Hwang, Aeran Jung, Ji Hyun Kim, Joo Hyeon Kim, Kap-Sung Kim, Jinny Lee, Minhwan Jang Keywords: Infrared observations; Data reduction techniques; Spectroscopy Abstract: We have constructed synthetic solar spectra for the 2302-4800 cm.sup.-1 (2.08-4.34 [mu]m) range, a spectral range where planetary objects mainly emit reflected sunlight, using ATMOS (Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy)/Spacelab-3 and Atlas-3 spectra, of which resolution is 0.01 cm.sup.-1. We adopted Voigt line profiles for the modeling of line shapes based on an atlas of line identifications compiled by Geller [Geller, M., 1992. Key to Identification of Solar Features. A High-Resolution Atlas of the Infrared Spectrum of the Sun and the Earth Atmosphere from Space. NASA Reference Publ. 1224, vol. III. NASA, Washington, DC, pp. 1-22], who derived solar line positions and intensities from contaminated high-resolution solar spectra obtained by ATMOS/Spacelab-3. Because the ATMOS spectra in these wavelength ranges are compromised by absorption lines of molecules existing in Earth's high-altitude atmosphere and in the compartment of the spacecraft, the direct use of these high-resolution solar spectra has been inconvenient for the data reductions of planetary spectra. We compared the synthetic solar spectra with the ATMOS spectra, and obtained satisfactory fits for the majority of the solar lines with the exception of abnormal lines, which do not fit with Voigt line profiles. From the model fits, we were able to determine Voigt line parameters for the majority of solar lines; and we made a list of the abnormal lines. We also constructed telluric-line-free solar spectra by manually eliminating telluric lines from the ATMOS spectra and filling the gaps with adjacent continua. These synthetic solar spectra will be useful to eliminate solar continua from spectra of planetary objects to extract their own intrinsic spectral features. Author Affiliation: Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Kyunghee University, Yongin 446-701, Republic of Korea Article History: Received 29 March 2007; Revised 26 May 2007