Infrared Optical Properties of Saline Solutions Present on Planetary Surfaces Determined from Laboratory Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR) Measurements

Saline solutions are present on earth in the form of seawater found in oceans, estuaries and inland seas, and droplets in the earth's atmosphere. We compare the infrared optical constants of seawater samples and NaCl/H2O solutions of varying salinity and discuss the procedures used to obtain these optical properties from our ATR intensity measurements using a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer.