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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. After the measurement campaign of the EU StratoClim Project, carried out in Nepal in summer 2017, the instrument was deployed onboard WB-57 for the SABRE test campaign (Houston TX, february 2022) and for the ACCLIP main campaign (Houston TX and Seoul RSK, july-august 2022). The instrument was shipped back and forth Florence (I) - Houston TX, and was operated during 27 test and scientific flights, providing full data without any maintenance (alignment, consumables, troubleshooting, etc.)