How much does the measurement of new spectra of CO2 and H2O in the far-infrared reduce the overall spectral uncertainty in this region?

Daniel is a postdoctoral research associate working at the University of Leicester, and part of the UK National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO). For the past three years, he has worked at Space Park Leicester, where he helped set up the SPENSER laboratory for the study of atmospheric gases through infrared spectroscopy. He has experience of measuring spectra of a whole suite of pure and air-broadened gas molecules, including ammonia, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and HFCs.

Before taking up his role at Leicester, Daniel obtained his PhD from the University of Warwick, measuring the ultrafast spectroscopy of diamond impurities in the mid-infrared region.

Research objectives

1. To measure new spectra of CO₂ and H₂O in the far-infrared, over a range of pressures, temperatures and pathlengths.
2. To provide the first set of non-Voigt spectroscopic line parameters of both CO₂ and H₂O in the far-infrared region, derived solely from experiment, along with the temperature dependence of key parameters.
3. To test the quality of radiative transfer calculations using the new parameters against ground-based and aircraft atmospheric measurements.
4. To assess the improvements in spectroscopy, including the proper representation of CO₂ line mixing, on estimates of atmospheric radiative forcing.