UC Irvine

Measurements of the C-H overtone transition strengths combined with estimates of the photodissociation cross sections for these transitions suggest that near-IR photodissociation of peroxy acetyl nitrate (PAN) is less significant (J(near-IR) approximate to 3 x 10(-8) s(-1) at noon) in the lower atmosphere than competing sinks resulting from unimolecular decomposition and ultraviolet photolysis. This is in contrast to the photochemical behavior of a related peroxy nitrate, pernitric acid (PNA), that undergoes rapid near-IR photolysis in the atmosphere with J(near-IR) approximate to 10(-5) s(-1) at noon (Roehl et al., 2002). This difference is attributed to the larger binding energy and larger number of vibrational degrees of freedom in PAN, which make 4 nu(CH) the lowest overtone excitation with a high photodissociation yield (as opposed to 2 nu(OH) in PNA).