H2S data reduction

Abstract

Calculating microwave opacity from a weakly absorbing gas mixture using a resonator requires measuring the quality factor of that resonator which necessitates accurately determining the center frequency (f(sub O)) and the half power bandwidth (Delta-f) of a noisy resonant line. The center frequency can be determined very accurately and varies very little over many measurements (a few kHz at GHz frequencies or a few hundredths of a percent). The greater source of error in estimating the Q of a resonator come from the bandwidth measurements. The half power bandwidth is determined essentially by eye-fitting a curve over a noisy resonant line and measuring with a spectrum analyzer.