The atmosphere has undergone considerable changes due to human influences over the last decades. Evidence of ongoing atmospheric change like intensified greenhouse effect has led to important questions for politics and the world community. In this regard, comprehensive atmospheric research has never been more active and important than now.
To better understand the global climate change, in particular, the exchange of Green-House Gases (CO2, CH4, N2O, HF, CO, H2O and HDO) between the atmosphere and the biosphere, e.g. research organizations such as the total carbon column observing network (TCCON), the network for the detection of atmospheric composition change (NDACC) and others have been founded. These are networks of ground-based Fourier-Transform spectrometers (among other instruments), that record atmospheric spectra using the sun as light source in the near-infrared or mid-infrared spectral regions. The received high precision data can be used among others as important ground truth complementing the satellite measurements e.g. from NASA.
For atmospheric pollutant analysis the sun serves as the infrared source and the concentration of different components along the optical path from the source through the complete atmosphere to the spectrometer is measured. For such field emission measurements ultra-high resolving FTIR spectrometers are required. Bruker IFS 125HR with its accurate instrument line shape, the outstanding wavelength precision and the world’s highest spectral resolution for FTIR technique is the gold standard for this application and research community.
Bruker IFS 125HR ultra-high resolving spectrometer with its impressive inteferometer design ensuring beam integrity over the extremely long optical path difference up to 11 meters.
Therefore a global network of IFS125HR spectrometers is employed for worldwide monitoring of atmospheric changes, partly installed in observation centers on mountain peaks like the famous Jungfraujoch in Switzerland (NDACC) or in the Lamont container in SGP ARM Central Facility in Oklahoma (TCCON). Check below picture of the worldwide TCCON site locations with IFS 125HR installed, emphasizing Bruker’s important contribution to monitor atmospheric pollution.
