Water vapor continuous absorption in various mixtures: possible role of weakly bound complexes

The model is suggested to describe the temperature dependence of mm-wave an d infrared continua absorption in terms of absorption by weakly bound binar y complexes. Present approach is applicable to a mixture of water vapor wit h various gases. It is shown that accurate consideration of mass action law for (H2O)(2) dimers and H2O-N-2, H2O-CO2, and H2O-Ar complexes allows to r eproduce temperature dependencies of continua absorption measured at differ ent wavelengths in mixtures containing various amount of water vapor. The m odel can be generalized to rigorously account for details of potential ener gy and dipole surfaces relevant to water-water and water-foreign gas intera ctions. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.