A cryogenically operated laser diode spectrometer for airborne measurement of stratospheric trace gases

A cryogenically operated laser diode spectrometer (COLD) for the airborne measurement of carbon monoxide is described. The instrument is designed, and fully qualified, for operation on a high-altitude aircraft and the scientific mission is the in situ measurement of trace gases in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Sensitivities achieved so far during in-flight operation are a few ppbV with a time resolution of 4 s, coupled with a good reliability. Airborne data, obtained by COLD during research campaigns in Australia and Brazil in the frame of international projects, are also presented to demonstrate COLD in-flight performance.

[1]  J Puerta,et al.  Three and four generalized Lorentzian approximations for the Voigt line shape: errata. , 1983, Applied optics.

[2]  J. Lelieveld,et al.  QUALITAS: A mid-infrared spectrometer for sensitive trace gas measurements based on quantum cascade lasers in CW operation , 2005 .

[3]  Gang Li,et al.  The HITRAN 2008 molecular spectroscopic database , 2005 .

[4]  F. Capasso,et al.  Quantum-cascade laser measurements of stratospheric methane and nitrous oxide. , 2001, Applied optics.

[5]  P. Crutzen,et al.  Biomass Burning in the Tropics: Impact on Atmospheric Chemistry and Biogeochemical Cycles , 1990, Science.

[6]  S. Wofsy,et al.  Tropospheric chemistry: A global perspective , 1981 .

[7]  E. Hinkley,et al.  Balloon-borne diode-laser absorption spectrometer for measurements of stratospheric trace species. , 1983, Applied optics.

[8]  Rodrigo Jimenez,et al.  Atmospheric trace gas measurements using a dual quantum-cascade laser mid-infrared absorption spectrometer , 2005, SPIE OPTO.

[9]  D. Hastie,et al.  Balloon-borne tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer for multispecies trace gas measurements in the stratosphere. , 1985, Applied optics.

[10]  D. J. Webster,et al.  Eastward propagation of transient field-aligned currents and Pi 2 pulsations at auroral latitudes , 1989 .

[11]  Christopher R. Webster,et al.  In situ stratospheric measurements of CH4, 13CH4, N2O, and OC18O using the Bliss tunable diode laser spectrometer , 1992 .

[12]  J B McManus,et al.  Astigmatic mirror multipass absorption cells for long-path-length spectroscopy. , 1995, Applied optics.

[13]  J Puerta,et al.  Generalized Lorentzian approximations for the Voigt line shape. , 1981, Applied optics.

[14]  Harold I. Schiff,et al.  A tunable diode laser system for aircraft measurements of trace gases , 1990 .

[15]  R. May,et al.  Simultaneous in situ measurements and diurnal variations of NO, NO2, O3, jNO2, CH4, H2O, and CO2 in the 40‐ to 26‐km region using an open path tunable diode laser spectrometer , 1987 .

[16]  L. Pfister,et al.  Small-scale motions observed by aircraft in the tropical lower stratosphere - Evidence for mixing and its relationship to large-scale flows , 1986 .

[17]  R. Grisar,et al.  TRISTAR – a tracer in situ TDLAS for atmospheric research , 1998 .

[18]  J. Lelieveld,et al.  Deep Convective Injection of Boundary Layer Air into the Lowermost Stratosphere at Midlatitudes , 2002 .

[19]  A. Thompson,et al.  Possible perturbations to atmospheric CO, CH4, and OH , 1986 .

[20]  M. Hegglin,et al.  Seasonality and extent of extratropical TST derived from in-situ CO measurements during SPURT , 2004 .

[21]  Peter Werle,et al.  A review of recent advances in semiconductor laser based gas monitors , 1998 .

[22]  Guido Toci,et al.  An airborne diode laser spectrometer for the simultaneous measurement of H2O and HNO3 content of stratospheric cirrus clouds , 2002 .

[23]  Roar Skartlien,et al.  Quantization error and resolution in ensemble averaged data with noise , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[24]  G. Carmichael,et al.  Airborne tunable diode laser measurements of formaldehyde during TRACE-P: Distributions and box model comparisons , 2003 .

[25]  Paul J. Crutzen,et al.  Budgets of O3 and CO in the upper troposphere: CARIBIC passenger aircraft results 1997–2001 , 2002 .

[26]  M. Loewenstein,et al.  Airborne tunable diode laser spectrometer for trace-gas measurement in the lower stratosphere. , 1993, Applied optics.

[27]  Rosaly M. C. Lopes,et al.  Geologic Mapping of the Chaac-Camaxtli Region of Io from Galileo Imaging Data , 2002 .

[28]  R. May,et al.  In situ stratospheric measurements of HNO3 and HCl Near 30 km using the balloon‐borne laser in situ sensor tunable diode laser spectrometer , 1989 .

[29]  Fabrizio Ravegnani,et al.  Contribution of mixing to upward transport across the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) , 2007 .

[30]  Paul J. Crutzen,et al.  Average concentrations of OH in the troposphere, and the budgets of CH 4, CO, H 2 and CH 3CCl 3 , 1977 .

[31]  Dominik Brunner,et al.  Tracing troposphere-to-stratosphere transport above a mid-latitude deep convective system , 2004 .

[32]  G. Toci,et al.  A Diode Laser Spectrometer for the In Situ Measurement of the HNO3 Content of Polar Stratospheric Clouds , 1999 .

[33]  V. Catoire,et al.  SPIRALE: a multispecies in situ balloonborne instrument with six tunable diode laser spectrometers. , 2005, Applied optics.

[34]  P. Werle,et al.  Signal processing and calibration procedures for in situ diode-laser absorption spectroscopy. , 2004, Spectrochimica acta. Part A, Molecular and biomolecular spectroscopy.

[35]  Four-laser airborne infrared spectrometer for atmospheric trace gas measurements. , 1996, Applied optics.

[36]  Glen W. Sachse,et al.  Fast‐response, high‐precision carbon monoxide sensor using a tunable diode laser absorption technique , 1987 .

[37]  Paul J. Crutzen,et al.  The origin of ozone in the troposphere , 1978, Nature.

[38]  David S. Covert,et al.  Design and Calibration of a Counterflow Virtual Impactor for Sampling of Atmospheric Fog and Cloud Droplets , 1988 .

[39]  Anne M. Thompson,et al.  Free tropospheric ozone production following entrainment of urban plumes into deep convection , 1992 .

[40]  C. Brenninkmeijer,et al.  New directions: A chemical tropopause defined , 2003 .

[41]  M. T. Coffey,et al.  Development of a tunable diode laser instrument for airborne in-situ measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrous oxide (N2O) , 1999, Optics & Photonics.

[42]  G. Mégie,et al.  Atmospheric CH4 and H2O monitoring with near-infrared InGaAs laser diodes by the SDLA, a balloonborne spectrometer for tropospheric and stratospheric in situ measurements. , 1999, Applied optics.

[43]  R. May,et al.  Aircraft (ER-2) laser infrared absorption spectrometer (ALIAS) for in-situ stratospheric measurements of HCI, N(2)O, CH(4), NO(2), and HNO(3). , 1994, Applied optics.