A highly accurate CO2
ab initio dipole
moment surface (DMS), Ames-2021, is reported along with 12C16O2 infrared (IR) intensity comparisons approaching
a 1–4‰ level of agreement and uncertainty. The Ames-2021
DMS was accurately fitted from CCSD(T) finite-field dipoles computed
with the aug-cc-pVXZ (X = T, Q, 5) basis for C atom and the d-aug-cc-pVXZ
(X = T, Q, 5) basis for O atoms, and extrapolated to the one particle
basis set limit. Fitting σrms is 3.8 × 10–7 au for 4443 geometries below 15 000 cm–1. The corresponding IR intensity, S
Ames‑2021, are computed using the Ames-2 potential
energy surface (PES), which is the best PES available for CO2. Compared to high accuracy IR studies for 2001i–00001 and 3001i–00001 bands, S
Ames‑2021 matches NIST experiment-based
intensities [S
NIST‑HIT16 or S
HIT20] to −1.0 ± 1.3‰, or
matches DLR experiment-based intensities [S
DLR‑HIT16/UCL/Ames] to 1.9 ± 3.7‰. This indicates the systematic deviations
and uncertainties have been significantly reduced in S
Ames‑2021. The S
UCL2015 (or S
HITRAN2016) have larger deviations
(vs S
DLR) and uncertainties (vs S
DLR, S
NIST) which
are attributed to the less accurate Ames-1 PES adopted in UCL-296
line list calculation. The S
Ames‑2021 intensity of 12C16O2 and 13C16O2 is utilized to derive new absolute 13C/12C ratios for Vienna PeeDee Belemnite (VPDB)
with uncertainty reduced by 1/3 or 2/3. Further evaluation of S
Ames‑2021 intensities are carried out on those CO2 bands discussed
in the HITRAN2020 update paper. Consistent improvements and better
accuracies are found in band-by-band analysis, except for those bands
strongly affected by Coriolis couplings, or very weak bands measured
with relatively larger experimental uncertainties. The Ames-2021 296
K IR line lists are generated for 13 CO2 isotopologues,
with 18 000 cm–1 and S
296 K > 1 × 10–31 cm/molecule
cutoff
and then combined with CDSD line positions (except 14C16O2). The Ames-2021 DMS and 296 K IR line lists
represent a major improvement over previous CO2 theoretical
IR intensity studies, including Ames-2016, UCL-296, and recent UCL
DMS 2021 update. A real 1 permille level of agreement and uncertainty
will definitely require both more accurate PES and more accurate DMS.