N₂O/CO Analyzer

LGR's N2O/CO Analyzer (Nitrous Oxide and Carbon Monoxide Analyzer) is the first instrument capable of continuously measuring ambient levels of nitrous oxide and carbon monoxide (with precision better than 0.1 ppb in 1 second) in real time (data rates to 10 Hz with optional external pump). Users can set up the instrument in minutes. Since CO is an excellent tracer of anthropogenic emissions, simultaneous measurements of CO and N2O can allow scientists to correlate the sources of N2O emissions.  The  N2O/CO Analyzer now also simultaneously measures water vapor  mole fraction. As a result, the instrument reports N2O and CO on a dry mol basis (accurately corrects for water vapor dilution and absorption line broadening effects) without the need for sample drying or empirical corrections.  (For simultaneous high precision measurements of CO and CO2, please refer to LGR's CO/CO2 Analyzer.)

The N2O/CO Analyzer is designed for many demanding applications including trace-gas (air quality) monitoring (e.g., GAW stations), eddy-correlation flux measurements, chamber flux measurements, and combustion diagnostics. The Analyzer is particularly well suited for measurements in the field and has been successfully deployed on-board aircraft for measurements in the upper troposphere / lower stratosphere. The N2O/CO Analyzer is unaffected by other atmospheric gases or changes in atmospheric pressure.

The N2O/CO Analyzer is available in different packages to serve customers' requirements. For measurements with highest precision and stability, LGR’s “Enhanced Performance" packaging incorporates proprietary internal thermal control for ultra-stable measurements with unsurpassed precision, accuracy, linearity, stability and drift. For field studies or other applications requiring portability (e.g., flux chambers), the N2O/CO Analyzer is now available in LGR’s aclaimed ultraportable package.

The N2O/CO Analyzer uses LGR’s patented Off-axis ICOS technology, the fourth-generation cavity enhanced absorption technique, which employs a high-finesse optical cavity as the measurement cell. LGR’s technology has many proven advantages over conventional first-generation cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS) techniques. In brief, since the laser beam does not have to be resonantly coupled to the measurement cell (i.e. precise beam alignment is not critical), LGR Analyzers are relatively inexpensive, simple to build, inherently robust thermally and mechanically, and thus simple to service anywhere by anyone.  In addition, since LGR’s technology can record reliable absorption spectra over a far wider range of optical depths (absorbance values) compared with CRDS, LGR Analyzers provide measurements over a much wider range of gas concentrations and without cross sensitivity to other gases in ambient air. Finally, due to the ease and simplicity of recording and quantifying the measured spectra using LGR’s Off-Axis ICOS, LGR Analyzers display the entire absorption spectra to the user in real time allowing for immediate system diagnostics and performance validation.

The N2O/CO Analyzer includes an internal computer (Linux OS) that can store data practically indefinitely on its internal hard drive (for applications requiring unattended longer term operation), and send real-time data to a data logger through its analog and digital (RS232) outputs.  As with all LGR analyzers, the N2O/CO Analyzer may be controlled remotely via the Internet. This capability allows the user to operate the analyzer using a web browser anywhere.