The HITRAN2020 molecular spectroscopic database

The HITRAN database is a compilation of molecular spectroscopic parameters. It was established in the early 1970s and is used by various computer codes to predict and simulate the transmission and emission of light in gaseous media (with an emphasis on terrestrial and planetary atmospheres). The HITRAN compilation is composed of five major components: the line-by-line spectroscopic parameters required for high-resolution radiative-transfer codes, experimental infrared absorption cross-sections (for molecules where it is not yet feasible for representation in a line-by-line form), collision-induced absorption data, aerosol indices of refraction, and general tables (including partition sums) that apply globally to the data. This paper describes the contents of the 2020 quadrennial edition of HITRAN. The HITRAN2020 edition takes advantage of recent experimental and theoretical data that were meticulously validated, in particular, against laboratory and atmospheric spectra. The new edition replaces the previous HITRAN edition of 2016 (including its updates during the intervening years). All five components of HITRAN have undergone major updates. In particular, the extent of the updates in the HITRAN2020 edition range from updating a few lines of specific molecules to complete replacements of the lists, and also the introduction of additional isotopologues and new (to HITRAN) molecules: SO, CH3F, GeH4, CS2, CH3I and NF3. Many new vibrational bands were added, extending the spectral coverage and completeness of the line lists. Also, the accuracy of the parameters for major atmospheric absorbers has been increased substantially, often featuring sub-percent uncertainties. Broadening parameters associated with the ambient pressure of water vapor were introduced to HITRAN for the first time and are now available for several molecules. The HITRAN2020 edition continues to take advantage of the relational structure and efficient interface available at www.hitran.org and the HITRAN Application Programming Interface (HAPI). The functionality of both tools has been extended for the new edition

Liverpool telescope 2: a new robotic facility for rapid transient follow-up

The Liverpool Telescope is one of the world's premier facilities for time domain astronomy. The time domain landscape is set to radically change in the coming decade, with surveys such as LSST providing huge numbers of transient detections on a nightly basis; transient detections across the electromagnetic spectrum from other facilities such as SVOM, SKA and CTA; and the era of `multi-messenger astronomy', wherein events are detected via non-electromagnetic means, such as gravitational wave emission. We describe here our plans for Liverpool Telescope 2: a new robotic telescope designed to capitalise on this new era of time domain astronomy. LT2 will be a 4-metre class facility co-located with the LT at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos on the Canary island of La Palma. The telescope will be designed for extremely rapid response: the aim is that the telescope will take data within 30 seconds of the receipt of a trigger from another facility. The motivation for this is twofold: firstly it will make it a world-leading facility for the study of fast fading transients and explosive phenomena discovered at early times. Secondly, it will enable large-scale programmes of low-to-intermediate resolution spectral classification of transients to be performed with great efficiency. In the target-rich environment of the LSST era, minimising acquisition overheads will be key to maximising the science gains from any follow-up programme. The telescope will have a diverse instrument suite which is simultaneously mounted for automatic changes, but it is envisaged that the primary instrument will be an intermediate resolution, optical/infrared spectrograph for scientific exploitation of transients discovered with the next generation of synoptic survey facilities. In this paper we outline the core science drivers for the telescope, and the requirements for the optical and mechanical design

Parametric Collective Phenomena during the Propagation of Polychromatic Laser Pulses in an Optically Dense Resonant Medium without Population Inversion

We experimentally and theoretically study the interaction of broadband polychromatic laser pulses with an optically dense resonant extended medium without population inversion. Experimental (probe field-pumping beam) measurements of the transmission and amplification spectra were carried out in the plasma of a positive neon glow-discharge column containing a large number of metastable atoms. The strong coupling in the field-matter system and the collective behavior of the atomic system in a resonant field were attributable to a high (∼10 12 cm -3) density of atoms at the lower (metastable) level of the optical transitions under consideration and to a relatively low intensity of the interacting laser beams. We observed a broadband weakening of the probe field in the absence of pumping and its strengthening in the line wings in the presence of a strong field. We develop a theoretical model for the parametric amplification of collective interactions in dense extended media based on the solution of the semiclassical Maxwell-Bloch equations for conditions under which the pumping field does not destroy the dipole interaction between atoms through probe-field photons. © 2002 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica"

Nonstationary Parametric Amplification of Polychromatic Radiation Propagating in an Extended Absorbing Resonant Medium

Amplification spectra for an optically dense resonator extended medium interacting with two-wave polychromatic laser radiation was performed. It was shown that, depending on the pumping power, its spectral composition and the characteristics of the medium, different field-substance interaction regimes were realized. The results showed that the amplification spectra of an optically dense medium reproduced all types of spectra inherent to the effect of so-called condensation of an oscillation spectrum under intracavity pumping of an optically dense medium

Coherent Light Sources under strong field-matter coupling in an optically dense resonant medium without population inversion

A new approach in the development of coherent radiation sources has been studied both theoretically and experimentally. The approach is based on the parametric excitation of collective modes of the field + matter system in two-level resonant optically dense media with strong coupling between the field and matter. Copyright © 2005 by Astro, Ltd

Laser-induced collective interactions under propagation of polychromatic radiation pulse through resonant optically dense extended medium without population inversion

Experimental and theoretical investigation of the coherent propagation and amplification of polychromatic broadband laser pulses in optically dense resonant media without population inversion was carried out for the cases of plasma in a Ne glow discharge and a pulse discharge in Hg-Ar mixture. High density of Ne and Hg atoms in the metastable state (about 10 12 cm -3), which was chosen to be the ground state of the two-level system under consideration, leads to the collective behavior of the atomic system in resonant electromagnetic field. The broadband probe field attenuation and the sideband amplification of the probe under the action of the coherent pump were observed. The amplification dependence on the pump intensity was obtained. The model of the parametrically enhanced collective interactions was developed and comparison to the experimental data was made