Measurement of Atmospheric CO Column Concentrations Based on Open-Path TDLAS

Monitoring of CO column concentrations is valuable for atmospheric research. A mobile open-path system was developed based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) to measure atmospheric CO column concentrations. A laser beam was emitted downward from a distributed feedback diode laser at 2 μm and then reflected by the retroreflector array on the ground. We measured the CO column concentrations over the 20 and 110 m long vertical path. Several single-point sensors were distributed at different heights to provide comparative measurements for the open-path TDLAS system. The results showed that the minimum detection limit of system was 0.52 ppm. Some similarities were observed in trends from the open-path TDLAS system and these sensors, but the average of these sensors was more consistent with the open-path TDLAS system values than the single-point measurement. These field measurements demonstrate the feasibility of open-path TDLAS for measuring the CO column concentration and monitoring carbon emission over large areas.