The energy transfer between multiply excited vibrational states of ozone is still an outstanding problem, because laboratory measurements of these states are very difficult. MIPAS/ENVISAT with its high spectral resolution gives an excellent opportunity to study this topic, because ozone abundance and temperature can be obtained in parallel from spectral channels, which are not affected by collisional processes.
The first question, which is addressed in this presentation, is to which extent fundamental band vibrational-translational quenching rates can be extrapolated to hotband transitions by means of simple harmonic oscillator scaling laws, or if more sophisticated calculations on the basis of Schwartz-Slawsky-Herzfeld theory and similar are necessary to explain the MIPAS ozone measurements.
Another important point is the role played by the resonances between various, multiply excited states, which are very close in energy. These states are strongly interacting, e.g. by means of Coriolis or Darling-Dennison resonances. MIPAS measurements give strong indications, that accidental resonances between stretching and bending vibrational modes, which are generally not considered in ozone non-local thermodynamic equilibrium models, are essential to understand the MIPAS stratospheric ozone measurements.
And the third topic, which is addressed in this presentation, is the vibrational-vibrational exchange of energy between ozone and molecular oxygen and whether previous estimates of the rates are compatible with the MIPAS measurements.
