MRI: Agro-combs: Development of a mid-infrared dual-comb spectrometer for the detection of agriculturally significant gases

堪萨斯州立大学获得了一项奖励，以支持一个由世界级物理学家和农学家组成的团队开发一种双梳激光光谱系统，用于检测农业上重要的气体。该系统基于获得诺贝尔奖的光学频率梳概念，因此被称为“农用梳”。最关键的农业挑战是到2050年作物产量翻一番，以满足不断增长的世界粮食需求。为此，植物、土壤和环境科学家需要有关时间和空间尺度上多种农业重要气体浓度的准确数据。这些数据对于作物育种、养分管理、作物用水和牲畜气体排放监测等应用是必不可少的。农业梳将支持一个由堪萨斯州立大学以及美国和加拿大各地的跨学科用户组成的协作小组。该项目的更广泛影响包括在这一高度跨学科的研究领域培养年轻研究人员。重要的社会成果还包括可能广泛影响精准农业管理、育种计划和其他领域的潜在商业技术。项目科学家将与现有的大学外展项目合作，为本科生提供暑期研究机会，并为中学生，特别是女孩提供实践活动。此外，他们将通过巡回系列讲座和其他拓展活动向堪萨斯州的孩子们介绍相关的科学。农业梳是一种中红外激光系统，用于在10米路径上同时测量多种微量气体浓度，具有高灵敏度。这项研究的智力优势在于，它能以前所未有的速度、光谱宽度和双梳光谱学提供的灵敏度，对现场的农业相关气体进行灵敏的检测。农业梳的宽带但离散性质将允许高分辨率检测二氧化碳和水，包括包含氘，碳-13和氧-16同位素的形式，用一个单一的开放路径仪器。这种前所未有的同步测量是通过提高对光合作用、土壤呼吸和蒸发以及植物蒸腾作用的认识来了解碳和水循环的关键。这些测量可以在不同作物品种的单个子地块上进行，以扩大将植物性状与其基因组成联系起来的能力。农业梳还将用于检测甲烷、一氧化二氮和氨等重要气体，这些气体可用于监测土壤中氮的气体损失和饲养场的甲烷排放。

An award is made to Kansas State University to support a team of world-class physicists and agronomists to develop a dual-comb laser spectroscopic system for the detection of agriculturally significant gases. This system is based on the Nobel-prize winning concept of the optical frequency comb and is hereby called an "agro-comb". The most critical agricultural challenge is to double crop production by 2050 to meet surging world food demand. To do so, plant, soil and environmental scientists need accurate data on the concentrations of multiple agriculturally significant gases at relevant time and spatial scales. Such data are indispensable for applications such as crop breeding, nutrient management, crop water use, and livestock gas emission monitoring. The agro-comb will support a collaborative group of interdisciplinary users from Kansas State University and throughout the United States and Canada. Broader impacts of this project include the training of young researchers in this highly interdisciplinary research area. Important societal outcomes also include potentially commercial technology which could widely influence precision agriculture management, breeding programs, and other areas. Project scientists will team up with existing University outreach programs to offer summer research opportunities to undergraduate students and hands-on activities for middle-school children, particularly girls. Furthermore, they will present related science to children throughout Kansas via a traveling lecture series, among other outreach activities.The agro-comb is a mid-infrared laser system for the simultaneous measurement of multiple trace gas concentrations with high sensitivity over a 10 m path. The intellectual merit of the research is the sensitive detection of agriculturally relevant gases in the field, with the unprecedented combination of speed, spectral width, and sensitivity that dual-comb spectroscopy offers. The agro-comb's broadband but discrete nature will permit the high-resolution detection of carbon dioxide and water, including forms that incorporate deuterium, carbon-13, and oxygen-16 isotopes, with a single open-path instrument. Such simultaneous measurements, never before possible, are key to understanding the carbon and water cycles by improving knowledge of photosynthesis, soil respiration and evaporation, and plant transpiration. These measurements can be made over individual sub-plots of different crop varieties, to expand the ability to connect a plant's traits to its genetic composition. The agro-comb will also be used to detect important gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, and ammonia, which can be used to monitor gaseous losses of nitrogen from soils and methane emissions from feedlots.