Identification of solar vibration-rotation lines of NH and the solar nitrogen abundance

Grevesse, N.; Lambert, D.L.; Sauval, A.J.; Dishoeck, E.F. van; Farmer, C.B.; Norton, R.H. (1990)

Article / Letter to editor

High resolution solar spectra obtained from the ATMOS Fourier Transform Spectrometer (Spacelab 3 flight on April 29 - May 6, 1985) made it possible to detect for the first time vibration-rotation lines of NH from the X3 Sigma(-) state near 3 microns. Using recent theoretical results for the transition probabilities of 23 selected measured lines of the 1-0 and 2-1 bands, a solar abundance of nitrogen of 8.06 + or - 0.07 is derived. This value is compared with the result derived from N I lines and agrees with the abundance obtained from the 3s-3p, 3p-3d and 3s-prime - 3p-prime transitions, A(N) = 8.00 + or - 0.09. The final recommended solar abundance of nitrogen is A(N) = 8.00 + or - 0.05.

• hydrogen compounds
• line spectra
• nitrogen compounds
• rotational spectra
• solar spectra
• vibrational spectra
• fourier transformation
• molecular oscillations
• oscillator strengths
• transition probabilities

• All authors: Grevesse, N.; Lambert, D.L.; Sauval, A.J.; Dishoeck, E.F. van; Farmer, C.B.; Norton, R.H.
• Date: 1990
• Journal: Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Volume: 232
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 225 - 230