On accounting for continual absorption of water vapor in calculation of thermal radiation fluxes.
The vertical profiles of thermal radiation fluxes F↑↓(z) are calculated in the spectral range from 800 to 1200 см-1 using two essentially different models for the water vapor continuum. One of these is constructed from our current parameterization of the spectral and temperature variations in the continuum absorption coefficient, which was determined recently by Baranov and associates after their laboratory measurements in pure water vapor. As a reference model we adopted an empirical representation for the continuum absorption coefficient, which has been suggested about three decades ago by Roberts et al. The results of both calculations are then confronted with each other. It is shown that the use of above mentioned continuum models, which are applicable for atmospheric window, the most important as thermal radiation is concerned, does not give rise to any appreciable difference in the values of radiation fluxes.