High Accuracy Mobile Emissions Laboratory for Measurements of Greenhouse Gases, Isotopes, Fluxes and Pollutants

This page updated August 9, 2010

Chair’s Air Pollution Seminar

Tuesday, September 7, 2010
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm, PDT
Sierra Hearing Room, Second Floor
1001 I Street, Sacramento

This event is being Webcast, click here to view
Webcast viewers: Please send your questions during broadcast to: sierrarm@calepa.ca.gov
Presentation is available at this link

High Accuracy Mobile Emissions Laboratory
for Measurements of
Greenhouse Gases, Isotopes, Fluxes and Pollutants

Douglas Baer, Ph.D.

President,
Los Gatos Research
Mountain View, California

In this presentation we report on the design, development, and deployment of a novel mobile laboratory, consisting of innovative laser-based gas analyzers, global positioning sensors, and monitors of air velocity, pressure and temperature, for rapid measurements of multiple greenhouse gases, fluxes and pollutants.  Designed for real-time mobile and stationery emissions monitoring, the mobile laboratory was deployed at several locations during 2010, including CalNEX 2010, Caldecott Tunnel, and Altamont Landfill, to record real-time continuous measurements of isotopic CO2 (δ13C, CO2), isotopic water vapor (δ2H, δ18O, H2O), isotopic methane (δ13C, CH4), methane flux (CH4), acetylene (C2H2), nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon monoxide (CO), and water vapor (H2O).  The on-board commercial gas analyzers are based on LGR’s patented cavity-enhanced laser absorption spectroscopy technique. The portable analyzers provide measurements in real time, require about 150 watts (each) of power and do not need liquid nitrogen to operate.  These instruments have been applied in the field for applications that require high data rates (for eddy correlation flux), wide dynamic range (e.g., for chamber flux and other applications with concentrations that can be 10-1000 times higher than typical ambient levels) and highest accuracy (atmospheric monitoring stations).  The mobile laboratory can provide regulatory agencies, monitoring stations, scientists and researchers with temporally and spatially resolved data (including measurements of important greenhouse gases, isotopes and pollutants) necessary for compliance monitoring, hot-spot detection, as well as cap and trade, at any location.  Details of extended measurement campaigns (including lessons learned) at the various field sites (urban and rural environments) will be presented.

Douglas Baer, Ph.D., is President of Los Gatos Research, Mountain View, California. Dr. Baer has been affiliated with Los Gatos Research since 2001.  Dr. Baer has authored over one hundred technical publications and two invited book chapters and holds several patents in the areas of laser spectroscopy and analytical methods.  He received a Bachelors of Science in Engineering Physics from University of California Berkeley, a Master of Science and a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

For information on this seminar please contact:
Ying-Kuang Hsu at (916) 323-5774 or send email to : yhsu@arb.ca.gov

For information on this Series please contact:
Peter Mathews at (916) 323-8711 or send email to: pmathews@arb.ca.gov

For a complete listing of the ARB Chairman's Series and the related documentation for
each one of the series please check this page

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