The resonance absorption of narrow-band laser radiation by atmospheric gases

The transmission function for the case of the resonance interaction of narrow-band laser radiation is given, along with the relation for the optical thickness. Reference is made to a study by Makushkin et al. (1983), which showed that the error in calculating the transmission function for an inhomogeneous path arising from inaccuracies in the spectroscopic and meteorological data amounts to 10 percent. For this reason, it is contended that certain simplifications can be made in the transmission function and the relation for the optical thickness. In this way, simple analytical expressions can be obtained whose deviation from rigorous machine computations will be no greater than errors contained in the initial data.