  The abundances of ices in planetary environments have historically been
obtained through measurements of near-infrared absorption features (lambda =
1.0-2.5 microns), and near-IR transmission measurements of materials present in
the interstellar medium are becoming more common. For transmission
measurements, the band strength (or absorption intensity) of an absorption
feature must be known in order to determine the column density of an ice
component. In the experiments presented here, we have measured the band
strengths of the near-IR absorption features for several molecules relevant to
the study of interstellar icy grain mantles and icy planetary bodies: CO
(carbon monoxide), CO2 (carbon dioxide), C3O2 (carbon suboxide), CH4 (methane),
H2O (water), CH3OH (methanol), and NH3 (ammonia). During a vacuum deposition,
the sizes of the near-IR features were correlated with that of a studied mid-IR
feature whose strength is well known from previous ice studies. These data may
be used to determine ice abundances from observed near-IR spectra of
interstellar and planetary materials or to predict the sizes of near-IR
features in spectral searches for these molecules in astrophysical
environments.
