title: Effective frequency technique for finite spectral bandwidth effects.
abstract: A technique that uses a single effective frequency to represent the effects of finite spectral bandwidth for active and passive measurements centered on an absorption line, a trough region, or a slowly varying spectral feature is described. For Gaussian and rectangular instrumental line shapes, the effective frequency is shown to have a simple form that depends only on the instrumental line shape and bandwidth and not on the absorption line profile. The technique is applicable to a large class of active and passive measurements and simulations in both the laboratory and the atmosphere. Simulations show that the technique yields accuracies better than 0.1% for bandwidths less than 0.2 times the atmospheric linewidth for a rectangular line shape or better than 0.2% for a Gaussian.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Atmospheres, Code 912, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA. korb@agnes.gafc.nasa.gov
authors.forename: C Laurence
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Korb
authors.forename: Chi Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Weng