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

向堪萨斯州立大学颁发了一项奖励，以支持一个由世界级物理学家和农学家组成的小组开发一种用于检测农业重要气体的双梳激光光谱系统。该系统基于获得诺贝尔奖的光学频率梳的概念，并在此被称为“农业梳”。最关键的农业挑战是到2050年将作物产量翻一番，以满足世界粮食需求激增。为此，植物、土壤和环境科学家需要在相关时间和空间尺度上获得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不可或缺的。农业梳将支持来自堪萨斯州立大学和整个美国和加拿大的跨学科用户的协作组。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训年轻研究人员。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计划合作，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，他们还将通过巡回讲座系列和其他推广活动，向堪萨斯的孩子们介绍相关科学知识。农业梳是一种中红外激光系统，可在10米的路径上同时测量多种痕量气体浓度，具有高灵敏度。该研究的智力价值是在田间灵敏地检测农业相关气体，具有前所未有的速度，双梳光谱学提供的光谱宽度和灵敏度。农用梳的宽带但离散的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，使用单个开路仪器。这种同时测量是前所未有的，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遗传组成联系起来的能力。农用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.