A low cost disposable instrument for vertical profile measurements of atmospheric CO2

这项建议旨在评估采用商业和家用锅炉系统中目前用于泄漏检测的技术的可行性，以提供一种基于一次性探头的低成本(50-100欧元)仪器，用于测量二氧化碳的垂直分布。有了适当的测量特点，这类仪器的小型网络可大大促进全球大气二氧化碳通量监测，增加目前地面和卫星方法可获得的信息，可能对了解和预测未来气候产生重大影响。该项目的主要成果将是针对二氧化碳剖面测量进行优化的原型仪器，以及生产型二氧化碳探测仪的设计和性能规范。这种方法的新奇之处在于将在远高于背景环境条件的浓度下证明的技术适应于要求高得多的精度的高层大气的未经试验的环境。技术方法：非色散红外(NDIR)吸收光谱技术的基础是由比尔-朗伯定律表示的吸收光谱。这项技术的优点是，它有一个基本的校准，基于已知或可计算的吸收截面。在这种情况下，使用光谱滤光片而不是色散元件来定义光谱通带，因此术语“非色散”。利用其中心位于2349厘米-1的基本振动-转动吸收带来测量二氧化碳。研究计划将分四个阶段进行：1)优化传感器设计2)构建优化的原型仪器3)实验室和剖面模拟仪器特性4)生产二氧化碳探头仪器的设计和性能规范。

This proposal is to assess the feasibility of adapting technology currently used for leak detection in commercial and domestic boiler systems to provide a low cost (50-100 euro) disposable sonde based instrument for measuring vertical profiles of CO2. With suitable measurement characteristics, a small network of such instruments could contribute significantly to global atmospheric CO2 flux monitoring, adding to the information obtainable from the current ground-based and satellite based approaches, with potentially significant implications for understanding and predicting future climate,. The principal deliverable of the project will be a prototype instrument optimised for CO2 profile measurements, and the design and performance specification for a production CO2 sonde instrument. The novelty of this approach is the adaptation of technology proven at concentrations well above background ambient conditions to the untried environment of the upper atmosphere where far higher precision is required. Technological approach: non dispersive infra-red (NDIR) absorption spectroscopy The basis of the technology is absorption spectroscopy, as expressed by the Beer-Lambert law. The advantage of this technique is that it has a fundamental calibration, based on known or calculable absorption-cross-sections. In this case a spectral filter rather than a dispersing element is used to define the spectral passband, hence the term 'non-dispersive'. CO2 is measured using its fundamental vibration-rotation absorption band centred at 2349 cm-1. The research program will take place in four phases: 1) Optimisation of sensor design 2) Construction of optimised prototype instrument 3) Laboratory and profile simulation instrument characterisation 4) Design and performance specification for a production CO2 sonde instrument.