A SPECTRAL ATLAS FOR M DWARFS

we propose to obtain lowresolution spectra of a number of m dwarfs in the range 2.5 45 microns. this region is largely unavailable to terrestrial spectrometers and contains many important features which govern the energy output from cool stars. of particular interest is the competition between water and methane as opacity sources and the importance of dust. these observations will allow accurate bolometric luminosities to be derived for mdwarfs and the measurement of important molecular bands which have not been observed in m dwarfs. spectra of mdwarfs provide the vital link toward understanding brown dwarfs. these spectra will provide a testbed for model calculations of brown dwarfs around the peak of their energy output. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]