Ethylene oxide monitor with part-per-trillion precision for in situ measurements

Yacovitch, Tara I.; Dyroff, Christoph; Roscioli, Joseph R.; Daube, Conner; McManus, J. Barry; Herndon, Scott C.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1915-2023

Articles | Volume 16, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1915-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1915-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 7

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

13 Apr 2023

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 13 Apr 2023

Ethylene oxide monitor with part-per-trillion precision for in situ measurements

Tara I. Yacovitch, Christoph Dyroff, Joseph R. Roscioli, Conner Daube, J. Barry McManus, and Scott C. Herndon

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Final revised paper (published on 13 Apr 2023)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 03 Nov 2022)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on amt-2022-294', Alan Fried, 24 Nov 2022

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://amt.copernicus.org/preprints/amt-2022-294/amt-2022-294-RC1-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-294-RC1
- CC1:
  'Author Reply to RC1', Tara Yacovitch, 13 Dec 2022
  
  The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://amt.copernicus.org/preprints/amt-2022-294/amt-2022-294-CC1-supplement.pdf
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-294-CC1
  - AC1: 'Author Reply to RC2', Christoph Dyroff, 12 Feb 2023
    
    The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://amt.copernicus.org/preprints/amt-2022-294/amt-2022-294-AC1-supplement.pdf
    
    Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-294-AC1
- AC1: 'Author Reply to RC2', Christoph Dyroff, 12 Feb 2023
  
  The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://amt.copernicus.org/preprints/amt-2022-294/amt-2022-294-AC1-supplement.pdf
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-294-AC1
RC2:
'Comment on amt-2022-294', Anonymous Referee #2, 18 Jan 2023

Review of Yakovitch et al., AMTD

This is a nice concise paper that describes the TILDAS-FD-EtO analyzer for ethylene oxide.

This is a really difficult measurement (due to low conc and potential interferences) and the authors give a good description here.

The large enhancements from two Facilities observed at the lab are very interesting and chasing down those sources with the mobile lab is particularly impressive.

I only have a couple of minor comments below.

Line 7. I don't think the cell is 413m long. I think you mean a cell with a 413 m path length.

line 55. Whats the cell pressure? Add it here.

line 103. "averages down well" is something I would say but it is a bit informal. Maybe reword.

Line 129. Hysplit is a model not an engine.

Line 152. I'm not sure this the best way to represent these statistics. Is the 18 ppt a general background for the hourly average in Fig 3?

Is the 22 ppt sd real signal or noise? Maybe include the averaging time? Maybe clarify what you explicitly mean here.

I think Fig S1 is especially helpful to the discussion. Would you consider moving it (or something similar) to the main text?

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-294-RC2
- AC1: 'Author Reply to RC2', Christoph Dyroff, 12 Feb 2023
  
  The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://amt.copernicus.org/preprints/amt-2022-294/amt-2022-294-AC1-supplement.pdf
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-294-AC1

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

AR by Christoph Dyroff on behalf of the Authors (20 Feb 2023) Author's response

EF by Sarah Buchmann (21 Feb 2023) Manuscript

EF by Sarah Buchmann (21 Feb 2023) Author's tracked changes Supplement

ED: Publish as is (03 Mar 2023) by Eric C. Apel

AR by Christoph Dyroff on behalf of the Authors (12 Mar 2023)

Short summary

Ethylene oxide is a toxic, carcinogenic compound used in the medical and bulk sterilization industry. Here we describe a precise and fast laser-based ethylene oxide monitor. We report months-long concentrations at a Massachusetts site, and we show how they suggest a potential emission source 35 km away. This source, and another, is confirmed by driving the instrument downwind of the sites, where concentrations were tens to tens of thousands of times greater than background levels.