Deducing rotational quantum-state distributions from overlapping molecular spectra.

A novel method for fast and robust calculation of Boltzmann plots from molecular spectra is presented. Its use is demonstrated on the OH(A-X) spectrum near 310 nm. A limitation of the method is identified: for overlapping spectra of the OH(A-X) and N(C-B, Δv = 1) band sequence, the calculation may often fail due to insufficient number of measured points.