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Low-power, open-path mobile sensing platform for high-resolution measurements of greenhouse gases and air pollutants

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Abstract

A low-power mobile sensing platform has been developed with multiple open-path gas sensors to measure the ambient concentrations of greenhouse gases and air pollutants with high temporal and spatial resolutions over extensive spatial domains. The sensing system consists of four trace gas sensors including two custom quantum cascade laser-based open-path sensors and two LICOR open-path sensors to measure CO2, CO, CH4, N2O, NH3, and H2O mixing ratios simultaneously at 10 Hz. In addition, sensors for meteorological and geolocation data are incorporated into the system. The system is powered by car batteries with a low total power consumption (~200 W) and is easily transportable due to its low total mass (35 kg). Multiple measures have been taken to ensure robust performance of the custom, open-path sensors located on top of the vehicle where the optics are exposed to the harsh on-road environment. The mobile sensing system has been integrated and installed on top of common passenger vehicles and participated in extensive field campaigns (>400 h on-road time with >18,000 km total distance) in both the USA and China. The simultaneous detection of multiple trace gas species makes the mobile sensing platform a unique and powerful tool to identify and quantify different emission sources through mobile mapping.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the following people associated with the mobile platform development and deployment including James Smith, Claire Gmachl, Elie Bou-Zeid, and Denise Mauzerall at Princeton University, Tong Zhu at Peking University, Barry Lefer at University of Houston, Robert Griffin at Rice University, Jim Crawford at NASA Langley Research Center, the NASA DISCOVER-AQ science team, Andrew Neuman and Thomas Ryerson at NOAA ESRL Chemical Sciences Division for calibrations with their NH3 permeation source, Dayle McDermitt from LICOR Biosceiences, and Yan Zhang from Scinovation. The research is supported by Princeton University, the National Geographic Air and Water Conservation Fund, NSF Center for Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE, NSF-ERC) under Grant No. EEC-0540832. Special thanks to the support and helpful discussions with LI-COR Environmental division and for providing a set of LICOR sensors for the mobile laboratory. K. Sun acknowledges support by NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NN12AN64H). D. J. Miller acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-0646086). We thank two anonymous reviewers for very helpful feedback and comments on the manuscript.

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  1. David J. Miller

    Present address: Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

    Lei Tao, Kang Sun, David J. Miller, Dan Pan, Levi M. Golston & Mark A. Zondlo

  2. Center for Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment, NSF-ERC, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

    Lei Tao, Kang Sun, David J. Miller, Dan Pan, Levi M. Golston & Mark A. Zondlo

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  1. Lei Tao
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Correspondence to Lei Tao.

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Tao, L., Sun, K., Miller, D.J. et al. Low-power, open-path mobile sensing platform for high-resolution measurements of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Appl. Phys. B 119, 153–164 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-015-6069-1

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