Laboratory Studies of Absorption Line Strengths

Recent and planned spectroscopic studies of our atmosphere stress the observation of individual molecular absorption or emission lines at the highest possible resolution. Such studies presume the availability of accurately measured line positions, strengths, and widths for the various molecules involved as determined from laboratory data. The determination of line widths and positions are the subject of other papers at this meeting. A discussion of some of the approaches to line strength measurements in the laboratory and the interpretation of such measurements form the subject of the present paper.