Compact highly sensitive multi-species airborne mid-IR spectrometer

We report on the development and airborne field deployment of a mid-IR laser-based spectrometer. The instrument was configured for the simultaneous in situ detection of formaldehyde (CH 2 O) and ethane (C 2 H 6 ). Numerous mechanical, optical, electronic, and software improvements over a previous instrument design resulted in reliable highly sensitive airborne operation with long stability times yielding 90 % airborne measurement coverage during the recent air quality study over the Colorado Front Range, FRAPPÉ 2014. Airborne detection sensitivities of ~15 pptv (C 2 H 6 ) and ~40 pptv (CH 2 O) were generally obtained for 1 s of averaging for simultaneous detection.