Core Chemistry Instrumentation

Trace and greenhouse gas spectrometers

One of the largest upgrades led by FAAM is the suite of instruments for measuring fundamental air pollutants.  The next phase of this project sees the revamping of the existing rack hosting FAAM’s fast nitrogen oxides chemiluminescence detector, with upgraded data loggers, mass flow controllers, vacuum pumps, the addition of  a new sulphur dioxide pulsed fluorescence analyser and calibration gas cylinders.  We are also building a new greenhouse gases measurement suite for carbon monoxide and dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapour, based on the mid-infrared quantum cascade laser absorption spectrometer MGA-5 developed by Miro Analytical AG.  This new rack will house the spectrometer, its vacuum pump and laser thermo-control chiller, rack power distribution and uninterruptible power supply, data logging system, and calibration gases flow control unit.  These challenging technological developments build on FAAM’s capabilities in the field of fast and high accuracy trace and greenhouse gases measurements. 

Project Contact: Dr Stéphane Bauguitte

Institution: FAAM Airborne Laboratory/National Centre for Atmospheric Science

Email: stephane.bauguitte@ncas.ac.uk