Portable laser spectrometer for airborne and ground-based remote sensing of geological CO emissions.

A 24 kg, suitcase sized, CW laser remote sensing spectrometer (LARSS) with a ~2 km range has been developed. It has demonstrated its flexibility in measuring both atmospheric CO from an airborne platform and terrestrial emission of CO from a remote mud volcano, Bledug Kuwu, Indonesia, from a ground-based sight. This system scans the CO absorption line with 20 discrete wavelengths, as opposed to the typical two-wavelength online offline instrument. This multi-wavelength approach offers an effective quality control, bias control, and confidence estimate of measured CO concentrations via spectral fitting. The simplicity, ruggedness, and flexibility in the design allow for easy transportation and use on different platforms with a quick setup in some of the most challenging climatic conditions. While more refinement is needed, the results represent a stepping stone towards widespread use of active one-sided gas remote sensing in the earth sciences.