Complete spectrum of methanol

Absolute intensity calibration and analysis of 166 experimental spectra recorded over a slow 248-398K temperature ramp provide a means for the simulation of the complete spectrum of methanol as a function of temperature. These results include contributions from v_t_=3 and other higher states that are difficult to model via quantum mechanical (QM) techniques.

They also contain contributions from the ^13^C isotopologue in terrestrial abundance. In contrast to our earlier work on semi-rigid species, such as ethyl cyanide and vinyl cyanide, significant intensity differences between these experimental values and those calculated by QM methods were found for many of the lines. Analysis of these differences shows the difficulty of the calculation of dipole matrix elements in the context of the internal rotation of the methanol molecule.