Continuum water vapor absorption in the 4000-8000 cm-1 region

A line-by-line calculation of the continuum absorption coefficient with the wing line contour describing the absorption in different windows outside of the water vapor bands in the 4000-8000 cm(-1) spectral region is presented. The continuum absorption calculated with the line wing contour characterizing the absorption in the 5800-6400 cm(-1) window is shown to be close to the total absorption. Hence it follows that the absorption in the 5000-5500 cm(-1) and 6900-7700 cm(-1) bands is almost entirely due to metastable dimers and free complexes.