Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy: Principles and Applications

by Ulrich Platt, Jochen Stutz

Overview

Measurement techniques form the basis of our knowledge about atmospheric composition and chemistry. Presently, important questions of atmospheric chemistry center on urban pollution, free-radical chemistry, degradation of greenhouse gases and the budgets of tropospheric and stratospheric ozone.

Among the many different optical spectroscopic methods that are in use, DOAS has emerged as a universal technique to measure the concentrations of atmospheric trace gases by making use of the characteristic absorption features of gas molecules along a path of known length in the open atmosphere.

This book reviews the basics of atmospheric chemistry, radiation transport, and optical spectroscopy before detailing the principles underlying DOAS. The second part of the book describes the design and application of DOAS instruments as well as the evaluation and interpretation of spectra. The recent expansion of DOAS application to the imaging of trace gas distributions by ground, aircraft, and satellite-based instruments is also covered.

Written for graduate students and researchers with a general background in environmental physics, this book especially addresses the needs of those working in the field of atmospheric chemistry, pollution monitoring, and volcanology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783642059469
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	12/15/2010
Series:	Physics of Earth and Space Environments
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of hardcover 1st ed. 2008
Pages:	598
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.06(d)

About the Author

Ulrich Platt is former Director of the Institute of Environmental Physics and Professor emeritus at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany. He is External Scientific Member of the Max-Planck Society. Together with Dieter Perner, he introduced the idea of Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) for which he won the Robert-Wichard-Pohl-Preis 2010 of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (German Physics Society, DPG). He published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and wrote and edited a number of books.

Jochen Stutz is Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles. His group works on the development of spectroscopic remote sensing instruments to measure atmospheric trace gases and its application to study atmospheric chemistry. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed publications. In recent years, his group has worked on improving long-path DOAS instruments for the measurement of BTEX compounds with the goal of further establishing this method as an accurate monitoring tool for refineries and air quality regulators.

Table of Contents

Introduction.- Atmospheric Chemistry.- Interaction of Molecules With Radiation.- Radiation Transport in the Atmosphere.- Measurement Techniques for Atmospheric Trace Gas Concentrations and Other Parameters.- Differential Absorption Spectroscopy.- The Design of Doas Instruments.- Evaluation of Doas Spectra, Sensitivity, and Detection Limits 259.- Scattered-Light Doas Measurements.- Sample Applications of “Active” Doas With Artificial Light Sources.- Sample Application of "Passive" Doas.- Doas: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.