Development of QA/QC performance standards for field use of open-path FTIR spectrometers

The objective of this study was to evaluate instrument performance with the ultimate goal of developing guidelines for procedures that can be used by instrument manufacturers and end users for quality control and quality assurance. A glass calibration cell was placed in the IR beam path and various performance parameters were evaluated. The parameters examined were gas flow rate, spectral noise in the region of interest, interferogram height, detector linearity, polystyrene peak positions, instrument accuracy, and instrument precision.