Articles | Volume 12, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1013-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1013-2019
Research article
 | 
15 Feb 2019
Research article |  | 15 Feb 2019

Correcting atmospheric CO2 and CH4 mole fractions obtained with Picarro analyzers for sensitivity of cavity pressure to water vapor

Friedemann Reum, Christoph Gerbig, Jost V. Lavric, Chris W. Rella, and Mathias Göckede

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Cited articles

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Short summary
Atmospheric CO2 and CH4 mole fractions are often measured using greenhouse gas analyzers manufactured by Picarro, Inc. We report biases in these measurements that are related to pressure changes in the optical cavity of the analyzers and occur mainly at low water vapor mole fractions. We provide a method to correct the biases, which contributes to keeping the overall accuracy of CO2 and CH4 measurements with Picarro analyzers within the WMO interlaboratory compatibility goals.
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