Compact highly sensitive multi-species airborne mid-IR spectrometer

We report on the development and airborne field deployment of a mid-IR laser-based spectrometer. The instrument was configured for the simultaneous in situ detection of formaldehyde (CH2O) and ethane (C2H6). Numerous mechanical, optical, electronic, and software improvements over a previous instrument design resulted in reliable highly sensitive airborne operation with long stability times yielding 90 % airborne measurement coverage during the recent air quality study over the Colorado Front Range, FRAPPA parts per thousand 2014. Airborne detection sensitivities of similar to 15 pptv (C2H6) and similar to 40 pptv (CH2O) were generally obtained for 1 s of averaging for simultaneous detection.