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Carbon Oxide Laser Detector 2 (COLD 2)
Status
Photo of COLD 2, uncovered.
Profile of carbon monoxide mixing ratio during the M55 Geophysica flight, on August 6, 2017, within the frame of STRATOCLIM Project.
a) CO mixing ratio and altitude vs time; b) flight route
COLD2 is an automated, portable, mid-infrared quantum cascade laser spectrometer for in situ carbon monoxide mixing ratio measurements in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. The instrument was designed to be versatile, suitable for easy installation on different platforms and capable of operating completely unattended, without the presence of an operator. The spectrometer features a small size (80 × 25 × 41 cm 3 ), light weight (23 kg) and low power consumption (85 W typical), without being pressurized. COLD2 recently flew aboard the research aircraft M55 Geophysica during a measurement campaign (StratoClim) carried out in Nepal in summer 2017. The instrument worked extremely well, without external maintenance during all flights, yielding an in-flight sensitivity of 1–2 ppbV with a time resolution of 1 s.