Advanced Mobile Monitoring of Greenhouse Gases and Air Pollutants Using a Compact Spectrometer

Urban air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions stem from diverse sources, including transportation, heating, buildings, waste management, industrial and agricultural activities, and natural events like forest fires. Simultaneous monitoring of air pollutants and GHGs with high selectivity and sensitivity is crucial for identifying and evaluating their sources and sinks, as well as understanding their interactions. Accurate measurements across various spatial and temporal scales are essential for modeling and validating emission inventories or satellite observations.

Traditionally, solutions for monitoring air pollutants or GHGs with high precision and temporal resolution have been "one-gas-one-instrument," resulting in large, stationary setups with high energy consumption. MIRO Analytical’s compact laser absorption spectrometer that integrates multiple mid-IR lasers enables simultaneous high-precision measurements of greenhouse gases (CO2, N2O, H2O, CH4), pollutants (CO, NO, NO2, O3, SO2, NH3), and trace gases (OCS, HONO, CH2O) within a single instrument. With a time-resolution of up to 10Hz, it is well-suited for detecting the relationships between co-emitted pollutants and GHGs as well as eddy-covariance flux studies.

In our presentation, we will showcase examples of our instrument's applications for mobile monitoring of 10 GHGs and air pollutants in urban areas, as well as airborne measurements using airships or planes. Additionally, we will present results from parallel monitoring with our instrument and conventional gas analyzers used for GHG and air pollutant measurements. This demonstrates our instrument's capability to serve as an all-in-one solution, replacing up to seven standard gas analyzers and enabling a wide range of new mobile multi-compound gas monitoring applications, such as in airplanes or cars.