Besides NASA, there are widespread needs in the public research sector for atmospheric species monitoring. With global warming at the forefront of environmental concerns, both academic and research institutions need reliable and affordable isotopic CO2 instrumentation to use in support of or as the basis of their research. Like NASA, the atmospheric research communities have interest in isotopic measurement instrumentation which can be developed from technology described in this proposal. Gases which could be measured include (18)O for O2, CO2 and N2O as well as (13)C measurements on methane. Gas correlation instrumentation can also be developed from the topology of this proposal. These communities would include institutions such as NCAR, NOAA, universities, and national labs.
Successful development of a field-deployable CO2 isotope spectrometer will bolster NASA's capabilities in their Global Climate Change program. Although a majority of NASA's earth based measurement platforms are satellites, terrestrial measurement systems both validate remote measurements as well as fill in the gaps of understanding. Information on carbon sources and sinks as well as fluxes of carbon that arise from precision (13)C measurements that this proposal will offer, can also be incorporated with the direct public service from NASA's Earth Observatory program. NASA's current CO2 mappings are not specific to isotopic distributions. Widespread measurements of (13)C can help discriminate anthropogenic from biogenic CO2 sources on a global and local scale. The technologies developed from this proposal extend beyond (13)C for CO2 measurements. The topology of the proposed system can be applied to various other isotopic species of interest to NASA. Isotopic measurements of (18)O for O2, CO2 and N2O as well as (13)C measurements on methane can be made with instruments developed from this platform. The technology could also be applied to measurements of isotope ratios in planetary atmospheres (e.g. Venus, Mars and Titan). Likewise, the system is appropriate for multiple gas correlation measurements while only using a single instrument.
More »