Abstract:
Laboratory spectral data reported last year have been used to investigate the line mixing behavior of hydrogen-broadened ammonia inversion lines. The data show that broadening parameters appearing in the modified Ben-Reuven opacity formalism of Berge and Gulkis (1976) cannot maintain constant values over pressure ranges that include low to moderate pressures and high pressures. Also, they cannot change drastically in value, as in the Spilker (1990) revision of the Berge and Gulkis formalism. It has long been recognized that at low pressures, less than about 1 bar of a Jovian atmospheric mixture, a VVW formalism yields more accurate predictions of ammonia opacity than Ben-Reuven formalisms. At higher pressures the Ben-Reuven formalisms are more accurate. Since the Ben-Reuven lineshape collapses to a VVW lineshape in the low pressure limit, this low pressure inaccuracy of the Ben-Reuven formalisms is surprising. By incorporating various behavior, a new formalism is produced that is more accurate than previous formalisms, particularly in the critical "transition region" from 0.5 to 2 bars, and that can be used without discontinuity from pressures of zero to hundreds of bars. The new formalism will be useful in such applications as interpretation of radio astronomical and radio occultation data on giant planet atmospheres, and radiative transfer modeling of those atmospheres.
