Tropospheric Chemistry: Instruments

ACES (Airborne Cavity Enhanced Spectrometer)

ACES on aircraft — ACES deployed on NOAA WP-3D aircraft

Principle of the Measurement

Cavity enhanced spectroscopy uses two mirrors to create an optical path of several tens of kilometers within a 50 cm measurement cell, making the instrument very sensitive to absorption by trace gases.

Species Measured

Glyoxal (CHOCHO), nitrous acid (HONO), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂)

Time Response / Detection Limit

30 pptv / 10 seconds for glyoxal and NO₂

Field Projects

SENEX 2013 (NOAA WP-3D)
UBWOS 2014 (ground site)
CARE-Beijing 2014 (ground site)
SONGNEX 2015 (NOAA WP-3D)
FIREX FireLab 2016 (USFS Fire Sciences Lab)

Key Publications

Zarzana, K.J., Min, K.-E., Washenfelder, R.A., Kaiser, J., Krawiec-Thayer, M., Peischl, J., Neuman, J.A., Nowak, J.B., Wagner, N.L., Dubé, W.P., St. Clair, J.M., Wolfe, G.M., Hanisco, T.F., Keutsch, F.N., Ryerson, T.B., and Brown, S.S., Emissions of Glyoxal and Other Carbonyl Compounds from Agricultural Biomass Burning Plumes Sampled by Aircraft, Environ. Sci. Technol., doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b03517, 2017.

Min, K.-E., Washenfelder, R. A., Dubé, W. P., Langford, A. O., Edwards, P. M., Zarzana, K. J., Stutz, J., Lu, K., Rohrer, F., Zhang, Y., and Brown, S. S., A broadband cavity enhanced absorption spectrometer for aircraft measurements of glyoxal, methylglyoxal, nitrous acid, nitrogen dioxide, and water vapor, Atmos. Meas. Tech., doi:10.5194/amt-9-423-2016, 2016.

Kaiser, J., Wolfe, G. M., Min, K. E., Brown, S. S., Miller, C. C., Jacob, D. J., deGouw, J. A., Graus, M., Hanisco, T. F., Holloway, J., Peischl, J., Pollack, I. B., Ryerson, T. B., Warneke, C., Washenfelder, R. A., and Keutsch, F. N., Reassessing the ratio of glyoxal to formaldehyde as an indicator of hydrocarbon precursor speciation, Atmos. Chem. Phys., doi:10.5194/acp-15-7571-2015, 2015.