Airborne Demonstration of 1.57-micron Laser Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric CO2 Measurements
Edward
V.
Browell, NASA Langley, edward.v.browell@nasa.gov
(Presenting)
Michael
E.
Dobbs, ITT Corp., mike.dobbs@itt.com
Jeremy
Dobler, ITT Corp, jeremy.dobler@itt.com
Susan
Kooi, SSAI/NASA Langley, susan.a.kooi@nasa.gov
Yonghoon
Choi, NIA/NASA Langley, yonghoon.choi-1@nasa.gov
F.
Wallace
Harrison, NASA Langley, fenton.w.harrison@nasa.gov
Berrien
Moore III, University of New Hampshire, b.moore@unh.edu
A unique, multi-frequency, single-beam, laser absorption spectrometer (LAS) that operates at 1.57 μm has been developed for a future space-based mission to determine the global distribution of sources and sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). A prototype of the space-based LAS system was developed by ITT, and it has been successfully flight tested in five airborne campaigns conducted in different geographic regions over the last three years.
Flight tests were conducted over Oklahoma, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Virginia under a wide range of atmospheric conditions. Remote LAS measurements were compared to high-quality in situ measurements obtained from instrumentation on the same aircraft on spirals under the ground track of the LAS.
LAS flights were conducted over a wide range of land and water reflectances and in the presence of scattered clouds. An extensive data set of CO2 measurements has been obtained for evaluating the LAS performance. LAS CO2 measurements with a signal-to-noise in excess of 250 were obtained for a 1-s average over land. Absolute comparisons of CO2 remote and in situ measurements showed agreement over a range of altitudes to better than 2 percent. Details of flight test campaigns and results are discussed in this paper.
NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Active Awards Represented by this Poster: