Equation 16 · How Planetary Science and Exploration Actually Work
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Symbol n
n is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.
Symbol z
z is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.
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What the article says around this equation
where is the incident spectrum, the wavelength-dependent optical depth, n(z) the number density of an absorbing species at altitude z , and its absorption cross-section, which itself depends on temperature and pressure. The instrument records I() ; the abundance profile n(z) is recovered by inverting this relation against a model atmosphere, which means every composition result carries the assumptions of that model — cloud and haze opacity, temperature structure, and the line-list data used for — bundled in with the raw spectral measurement.
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