Continuous-wave cavity ringdown spectroscopy of the 8nu polyad of water in the 25,195-25,340 cm(-1) range.

State-of-the-art experiments and calculations are used to record and assign the data obtained in the weakly absorbing blue energy region of the H2O spectrum. Continuous-wave cavity ringdown absorption spectroscopy with Doppler resolution is used to probe the range from 25,195 to 25,470 cm(-1) with an absorption sensitivity of approximately 1 parts per 10(9) (ppb)/cm. 62 lines of the polyad nu(OH)=8 are reported, of which 43 are assigned using variational nuclear calculations. The study includes absorption line intensities (in the range of 10(-28)-10(-26) cmmolecule) for all lines and self-broadening pressure coefficient for a few lines. The newly obtained energy levels are also reported.