Looking to the very near future, the proposed laser heterodyne radiometer (LHR) could be installed at numerous sites - especially in the arctic where satellite (e.g. GOSAT, OCO-2) data are unavailable – to form a world-wide network capable of making real-time measurements of greenhouse gasses (GHG). Also, the proposed LHR can augment other methods currently used by NASA to measure the abundance of GHG. Also, the LHR lasers can be changed or more can be added to measure other species such as water vapor (H2O) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Further, since sunlight is a very broadband light source, levels of pollutants such as sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and carbon monoxide (CO) if the lasers and optical detector were changed.
One can envision several applications for a low cost, accurate atmosphere radiometer. Any place airborne chemicals need to be detected and/or their concentrations measured, the LHR is a potential solution. Applications could include: ? Measurement of smokestack emissions from the ground. ? Ground-based measurement of airborne jet or rocket engine performance by monitoring exhaust components. ? Detection and classification of harmful airborne gasses or chemicals using a manmade, broadband light source in lieu of sunlight (e.g. monitoring the atmosphere in large factory or in a mine elevator shaft using a stabilized 300 – 2600nm light source). The system can be expanded to simultaneously use multiple lasers to measure species or compounds having spectra that span a wide spectrum.
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