Simultaneous trace gas flux monitoring of 10 greenhouse gases and air pollutants with a single instrument

Monitoring of trace and greenhouse gas fluxes is key to understand the interaction between atmosphere, plants, and soil and therefore to improving our understanding of the climate system in general.

Complex flux systems, in environments where both biogenic and anthropogenic sources and sinks play a role, require measurement of many different inert and reactive trace gases and greenhouse gases simultaneously to obtain a complete budget.

Until recently, however, the monitoring was usually limited to only a few gases per measurement device making the technique complex and expensive but providing only a limited picture. MIRO Analytical has developed a novel multicompound gas analyzer that can monitor up to 10 air pollutants (CO, NO, NO₂, O₃, SO₂ and NH₃), greenhouse gases (CO₂, N₂O, H₂O and CH₄) and other atmospheric trace gases such as (OCS, HONO, CH₂O) simultaneously at ppb level.

The eddy covariance (eddy flux) technique is often used to measure fluxes of trace gases but requires a high time resolution. Our compact instrument, combing several mid-infrared lasers (QCLs), offers 10 Hz sampling rate, outstanding precision, selectivity and accuracy and an automatic water vapor correction, which makes it ideal for eddy covariance flux measurements.

In our contribution, we will introduce the measurement technique and will demonstrate application examples of this all-in-one atmospheric flux monitor. The system will be compared to alternative devices in parallel measurements and results of long-term observations and shorter campaigns will be presented.