Significant uncertainties in the spectroscopy of collision-induced absorption by oxygen have a limited knowledge of the contribution made by molecular oxygen to the short-wave radiation budget of the Earth's atmosphere. As part of a program of high-resolution (up to 0.02 cm-1) studies of atmospheric short-wave transmittance under clear-sky conditions, field measurements in the region of the 1.27 μm (7874 cm-1) oxygen absorption are reported here. Measurements of direct solar radiation incident at the ground were made using a ground-based Fourier transform spectrometer at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (51.6 ¿N, 1.3 ¿W, altitude 135 m). Model calculations of the atmospheric transmittance in the region of the broad continuum feature underlying the a1Δg←X3&Sgr;g-(0,0) band of oxygen were made using absorption cross sections derived from recent laboratory measurements. The agreement between the field observations and the model calculations validates a simple model developed to describe the atmospheric oxygen continuum absorption centered at 1.27 μm for atmospheric short-wave radiative transfer and remote sensing applications. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union