Compact highly sensitive multi-species airborne mid-IR spectrometer

• DOI: 10.1007/s00340-015-6038-8
• Publication Date: 2015-02-18T07:40:37Z
• Authors: Dirk Richter; Petter Weibring; James G. Walega; Alan Fried; Scott M. Spuler; Matthew S. Taubman
• Keywords: 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; 02 engineering and technology

We report on the development and airborne field deployment of a mid-IR laser-based spectrometer. The instrument was configured for the simultaneous in situ detection of formaldehyde (CH2O) and ethane (C2H6). Numerous mechanical, optical, electronic, and software improvements over a previous instrument design resulted in reliable highly sensitive airborne operation with long stability times yielding 90 % airborne measurement coverage during the recent air quality study over the Colorado Front Range, FRAPPE 2014. Airborne detection sensitivities of ~15 pptv (C2H6) and ~40 pptv (CH2O) were generally obtained for 1 s of averaging for simultaneous detection.