Spectroscopy and Photochemistry of Planetary Atmospheres and Ionospheres

Now retired, Vladimir Krasnopolsky was previously a Research Professor in the Department of Physics at the Catholic University of America. An expert on spectroscopy and photochemical modelling, he is the author of 3 books, 4 book chapters and 153 refereed publications. He is one of the most highly cited scientists working on planetary atmosphere research and was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1985 for his studies of Venus. He has worked on many space missions throughout his career and was the Principle Investigator of the airglow spectrometer on the Mars 5 spacecraft and the Venera 9 and 10 missions to Venus, the three-channel spectrometer on the Vega mission to Venus, and the infrared spectrometer on the Phobos 2 orbiter.

• Preface; 1. The Solar System; 2. Atmospheric structure; 3. Spectroscopy; 4. Aerosol extinction and scattering; 5. Quantitative spectroscopy; 6. Spectrographs; 7. Spectroscopic methods to study planetary atmospheres; 8. Solar radiation, its absorption in the atmospheres, and airglow; 9. Chemical kinetics; 10. Photochemical modeling; 11. Mars; 12. Venus; 13. Titan; 14. Triton; 15. Pluto and Charon; References; Index.