Compact highly sensitive multi-species airborne mid-IR spectrometer.

We report on the development and airborne field deployment of a mid-IR laser-based spectrometer. The instrument was configured for the simultaneous in situ detection of formaldehyde (CHO) and ethane (CH). Numerous mechanical, optical, electronic, and software improvements over a previous instrument design resulted in reliable highly sensitive airborne operation with long stability times yielding 90 % airborne measurement coverage during the recent air quality study over the Colorado Front Range, FRAPPÉ 2014. Airborne detection sensitivities of ~15 pptv (CH) and ~40 pptv (CHO) were generally obtained for 1 s of averaging for simultaneous detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]