High Temperature Nonequilibrium Effects on Atomic and Molecular Polarizability *

At high temperatures aero-optical distortions and knowledge of noneqilibrium effects are of critical importance in flow diagnostics and for proper interpretation of schlieren and shadowgraph visualization techniques. To calculate the dynamic polarizability we used a semi-classical approach, when the total polarizability is a summation of virtual transitions from  the ground state to upper electronic, vibrational and rotational states. In this study we analyzed the atomic and molecular polarizability of nitrogen and oxygen and their dependence on the set of oscillator strengths and populations of vibrational and rotational states.