Absorption lines for air, under indirect illumination, so that the gas is not directly between source and detector. Here, Fraunhofer lines in sunlight and Rayleigh scattering of this sunlight is the "source." This is the spectrum of a blue sky somewhat close to the horizon, looking east with the sun to the west at around 3–4 pm on a clear day.
A spectral line is a weaker or stronger region in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum. It may result from emission or absorption of light in a narrow frequency range, compared with the nearby frequencies. Spectral lines are often used to identify atoms and molecules. These "fingerprints" can be compared to the previously collected ones of atoms[1] and molecules,[2] and are thus used to identify the atomic and molecular components of stars and planets, which would otherwise be impossible.