PNNL

Abstract

Ethane is a prominent contributor to the spectrum of Titan, particularly in the region of the v9 band at 12µm. A multispectrum nonlinear least squares fitting program was applied to laboratory spectra of ethane to measure accurate positions, absolute intensities, N2- and selfbroadened half- width coefficients and their temperature dependences for a large number transitions. These measurements include several pQ and rQ sub-bands (and other sub-bands such as pP, rR) in the v9 fundamental band of 12C2H6 centered near 822 cm-1. Positions were measured for 2958 transitions and intensities for 3771 transitions. N2- and self-broadened half-width coefficients were determined for over 1700 transitions while temperature dependence exponents were retrieved for over 1350 of those transitions. Of these, many measurements (mostly line positions and intensities) belong to the v9+v4-v4 hot band, v9+2v4-2v4 hot band, 13C12CH6 v9 band and unidentified transitions. Forty-three high resolution (0.0016-0.005 cm-1) infrared laboratory absorption spectra recorded at temperatures between 148 and 298 K were fitted simultaneously to retrieve these parameters. Forty-one of these spectra were obtained in the temperature range of 211-298 K using the Bruker IFS 120HR interferometer located at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington. Two additional spectra at 148 K were recorded using a new temperature stabilized cryogenic cell designed to work inside the sample compartment of the high resolution Bruker IFS 125HR interferometer of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena California. The specialized cooling cell developed at Connecticut College and capable of achieving gas sample temperatures down to 70 K with a temperature stability and uniformity of better than ±0.05 K was employed to record the 148 K spectra. Constraints to intensity ratios, doublet separations, half-width coefficients and their temperature dependence exponents were required to determine these parameters for each of the two torsional split components. Similar to N2- and self-broadened half-width coefficients, their temperature dependence exponents were also found to follow distinctively different patterns. The variations of the observed half-width coefficients and their temperature dependences with respect to J, K quantum numbers are discussed. Because of the high density of torsionally split spectral lines, hot-band ransitions as well as blends, it was not possible to retrieve any information on the small pressure-induced shift coefficients. Present results are compared to other available measurements.