A lightweight balloon-borne laser diode sensor for the in-situ measurement of CO 2 at 2.68 micron in the upper troposphere and the lower stratosphere

• Published in: Applied Physics B
• Main Authors: Ghysels, M., Durry, G., Amarouche, N., Cousin, J., Joly, L., Riviere, E. D., Beaumont, L.
• Other Authors: Groupe de spectrométrie moléculaire et atmosphérique (GSMA), Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2012
• Subjects: [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Arctic; Kiruna
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04114012; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-012-4887-y

International audience We report the development of a laser sonde operated under stratospheric balloons and devoted to the in-situ measurement of carbon dioxide in the upper troposphere and the lower stratosphere. In the 2.68 micron region, strong CO 2 transitions are suitable for the in-situ monitoring of carbon dioxide, which gives ∼10% absorption depth and, moreover, antimonide laser diodes are nowadays available that show relevant spectral properties for absorption spectroscopy. The light-weight sensor is based on 50-cm single path configuration and is operated open to the atmosphere. We provide details of the design of the instrument and data processing. The performance and the stability of the instrument were evaluated with the Allan variance technique. The spectrometer was test-flown in the Arctic stratosphere from Kiruna, Sweden and we report preliminary flight results.