We present high spectral resolution (0.05 cm-1) ground-based measurements of direct solar absorption in the clear-sky atmosphere by water vapor over the 830 to 985 nm (10,150--12,050 cm-1) region. Observations were made from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory on several days in different seasons during 1999. Using these observations water vapor line data in HITRAN and the ESA-WVR database, derived from new laboratory measurements and theoretical calculations, are evaluated. Examples of inter-comparisons between these databases and high-resolution atmospheric transmittance spectra are given. The ESA-WVR and HITRAN 2000 databases were found to give consistently better representations of clear-sky absorption by water vapor in our measurements than previous editions of HITRAN, confirming that spectroscopic errors in databases account in part for discrepancies between modeled and observed short-wave absorption. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union