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The Third International Conference on Laboratory Research for Planetary Atmospheres (3rd ICLRPA) was held in Palo Alto, California, on November 3, 1991, preceding the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society (DPS/AAS). These conferences continue to highlight important progress in laboratory studies with an emphasis on their relationships to models and theories of planetary atmospheres, and importantly, with a focus on those needs for data most critical both to the analyses of ground‐based and spacecraft measurements, and to the planning of new missions. This special section of the Journal of Geophysical Research‐Planets (JGR‐Planets) includes several invited and contributed papers originally presented at the 3rd ICLRPA. I. de Pater and D. Mitchell (University of California, Berkeley) discussed radio observations of planetary atmospheres and solid surfaces, and explained the role of laboratory data in the analysis of these astronomical observations. They also noted the absence of certain relevant laboratory results needed to further develop our understanding of physical properties of planets. D.C. Reuter and J.M. Sirota (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland) discussed the utility of a spectroscopic system consisting of tunable diode lasers at wavelengths out to 28 microns; a liquid helium‐4 cooled, back‐illuminated, bounded impurity‐band (BIBIB) detector; and a 100‐m White cell to measure infrared transitions in molecules of planetary interest at very high spectral resolution and detectivity. B. Bezard (Observatory of Paris, Meudon, France) considered molecular spectra for Titan to be measured from the Infrared Space Observatory and the Cassini mission over a great range of wavelengths, from the infrared to the submillimeter, with high spectral resolution. He discussed the detectability of certain hydrocarbons and nitriles, and the corresponding need for spectroscopic measurements in the laboratory. H.A. Weaver (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland) reviewed the physical and chemical nature of cometary comae, and the connection of molecules and atoms therein with the composition of cometary nuclei. P.J. Gierasch (Cornell University, Ithaca, New York) reviewed the dynamics and thermal structure of the atmospheres of the outer planets, summarizing important measurements that are feasible with remote‐sensing spectroscopic techniques. He discussed precise observations of temperatures, velocities, and abundances to determine seasonal variations in global stratospheric circulations, winds, wave phenomena, and global oscillations. W.T. Huntress (NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.) introduced a program for state‐of‐the‐art, integrated systems of laboratory instruments designed for planetary applications. He noted that the establishment of these Centers for Laboratory Planetary Science Studies would facilitate, for all qualified experimentalists, the complex analytical studies needed to support planetary space missions. |
