Articles | Volume 13, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6095-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6095-2020
Research article
 | 
17 Nov 2020
Research article |  | 17 Nov 2020

Autonomous airborne mid-infrared spectrometer for high-precision measurements of ethane during the NASA ACT-America studies

Petter Weibring, Dirk Richter, James G. Walega, Alan Fried, Joshua DiGangi, Hannah Halliday, Yonghoon Choi, Bianca Baier, Colm Sweeney, Ben Miller, Kenneth J. Davis, Zachary Barkley, and Michael D. Obland

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Cited articles

Baier, B. C., Sweeney, C., Choi, Y., Davis, K. J., DiGangi, J. P., Feng, S., Fried, A., Halliday, H., Higgs, J., Lauvaux, T., Miller, B. R., Montzka, S. A., Newberger, T., Nowak, J. B., Patra, P., Richter, D., Walega, J., and Weibring, P.: Multispecies assessment of factors influencing regional CO2 and CH4 enhancements during the winter 2017 ACT-America campaign, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 125, 2, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031339, 2019. 
Barkley, Z. R., Lauvaux, T., Davis, K. J., Deng, A., Fried, A., Weibring, P., Richter, D., Walega, J. G., DiGangi, J. P., Ehrman, S. H., Ren, X., and Dickerson, R. R.: Estimating Methane Emissions From Underground Coal and Natural Gas Production in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 4531–4540, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082131, 2019a. 
Barkley, Z. R., Davis, K. J., Feng, S., Balashov, N., Fried, A., Di-Gangi, J., Choi, Y., and Halliday, H. S.: Forward modeling and optimization of methane emissions in the South Central United States fusing aircraft transects across frontal boundaries, Geophys. Res. 10 Lett., 46, 13564–13573, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL084495, 2019b. 
Bell, E., O'Dell, C. W., Davis, K. J., Campbell, J., Browell, E., Denning, A. S., Dobler, J., Erxleben, W., Fan, T. F., Kooi, S., Lin, B., Pal, S., and Weir, B.: Evaluation of OCO-2 XCO2 Variability at Local and Synoptic Scales using Lidar and in Situ Observations from the ACT-america Campaigns, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 125, 10, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031400, 2020. 
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Short summary
The present study describes an autonomously operated instrument for high-precision (20–40 parts per trillion in 1 s) measurements of ethane during actual airborne operations on a small aircraft platform (NASA's King Air B200). This paper discusses the dynamic nature of airborne performance due to various aircraft-induced perturbations, methods devised to identify such events, and solutions we have enacted to circumvent these perturbations.
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