Near-IR linestrength measurements of hydroperoxy radicals

Abstract

Hydroperoxy (HO_2) radicals play crucial roles in atmospheric chemistry as a reservoir specie of hydroxyl (OH) radicals. In situ, direct monitoring of HO_2 radicals under pertinent atmospheric conditions provide important clues to assessing the importance of different atmospheric reactions that take places and in testing and refining atmospheric reaction models. Concurrent laboratory measurement of HO_2 reaction rates are also important in order to build a database of reaction rates which are needed for the atmospheric reaction modeling. Spectroscopic detection of HO_2 radical in UV is complicated by the broad, featureless absorption due to predissociation.

Additional details