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The HITRAN database is a curated compilation of validated molecular spectroscopic parameters, established in the early 1970s. It is used by various computer codes to predict and simulate the transmission and emission of light in gaseous media (with an emphasis on terrestrial and planetary atmospheres). The HITRAN compilation is composed of six major components. These components include the line-by-line spectroscopic parameters required for high-resolution radiative-transfer codes, experimentally derived absorption cross-sections (for molecules where it is not yet feasible for representation in a line-by-line form), collision-induced absorption data, aerosol indices of refraction, and general tables (including partition sums) that apply globally to the data. Responding to community requests, HITRAN2024 also incorporates — for the first time — a water-vapor continuum model.

This paper describes the details of the choices of data and their compilation for the 2024 quadrennial edition of HITRAN. The HITRAN2024 edition takes advantage of recent experimental and theoretical data that were meticulously validated, in particular, against laboratory and atmospheric spectra. The new edition replaces the previous HITRAN edition of 2020 (including various updates during the intervening years).

The extent of the updates of the line-by-line section in the HITRAN2024 edition ranges from updating a few lines of specific molecules/isotopologues to complete replacements of the lists, and also the introduction of additional isotopologues and six new (to HITRAN) molecules: H3+, CH3, S2, COFCl, HONO, ClNO2. Many new vibrational bands were added, extending the spectral coverage and completeness of the line lists. In addition, the accuracy of the parameters for major atmospheric absorbers has been increased substantially, often bringing the uncertainties down to unprecedented levels below 0.1%.

The HITRAN2024 edition is available through www.hitran.org as well as the HITRAN Application Programming Interface (HAPI). The functionality of the tools to work with the HITRAN data has been extended for the new edition.