Center-to-limb behaviour of molecular rotational temperatures III

Abstract

Utilizing the KPNO atlas (Brault & Testerman 1972) for the (0-0) band of the Swan system of the C/sub2/ molecules, we determine rotational temperatures T/subrot/, for mu = 1.0 and mu = 0.2. When saturation in the observed equivalent widths is accounted for, the model-based result for T/subrot/ comes out slightly lower than observations at a near limb position (mu = 0.2). There is no evidence for an increase in temperature towards the solar limb discussed earlier (Sinha 1979a, b).