Past exam of the short options paper shared by Parts A and B of the physics course of the University of Oxford / 2019 / S25 / 1 / c / Solution

Downward-from-space optical depth at wavelength $\lambda$ iswhere ${\kappa }_{\lambda }$ is the mass absorption coefficient. A nearly isothermal, hydrostatic equilibrium, compositionally well-mixed atmosphere with height-independent ${\kappa }_{\lambda }$ has $\rho \propto e^{-z/H}$ and $\tau \propto e^{-z/H_{\tau }}$ with $H_{\tau }=H=R_{a}T/g$. Thus temperature, mean molecular mass and gravity set the basic scale height. Changes in the absorber mixing ratio, pressure broadening, temperature dependence of line strengths, collision-induced absorption and departures from hydrostatic equilibrium modify it. For example if local absorption scales as ${\rho }^2$ in an isothermal atmosphere, $H_{\tau }=H/2$.