A treatment of opacity and emission suitable for media of low density and temperature. II - Molecular hydrogen

The cooling and absorption functions due to rotovibrational transitions of the H2 molecule were evaluated. This is done by computing the NLTE level populations, taking into account collisions between molecules, collisions between molecules and H atoms, and the effect of a radiation field modeled with a blackbodylike field at a temperature T(rad). Sources considered as opacity were both bound-bound transitions in the rotovibrational levels of the molecule, and the radiation scattering on bound electrons. The absorption coefficient is averaged on the wavelength spectrum adopting the Planck function as a weight. In some cases, analytic fits to the computed values vs the state variables are presented and discussed. Both emission functions and opacities are also presented in tabular form.