Hamburg 2009 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 2: Atmosphäre II

UP 2.5: Vortrag

Dienstag, 3. März 2009, 15:06–15:18, VMP 9 HS

A lightweight, high-sensitivity PTR mass-spectrometer for measuring organic compounds on aircraft platforms — •Joel Brito, Detlev Sprung, and Andreas Zahn — Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

As of May 2005 our institute deploys a modified Proton-Transfer-Reaction mass spectrometer (PTRMS) from IONICON onboard the passenger aircraft CARIBIC. Once per months for four consecutive long-distance flights from Frankfurt (Germany) to North/South America, Southern India or the Philippines the PTRMS measures acetone, acetonitrile, methanol, and acetaldehyde at 9-12 km altitude, which in the meantime led to the largest available dataset of these compounds in this altitude range.

The broad experience collected during the CARIBIC flights and with a custom-made PTRMS for laboratory use allowed us to develop a new airborne instrument where all components are optimized in terms of weight, size and function for the deployment onboard aircraft.

For the new German research aircraft HALO (High-Altitude and Long-range Aircraft, Gulfstream GV-550), an extremely lightweight, high-sensitivity, quadrupole PTRMS was developed. The total weight including zero-air generator and calibration system is ~50 kg (without aircraft rack). The instrument is completely automated and via a sophisticated heating concept allows rapid high-sensitivity measurements shortly after aircraft launch. The first deployment is envisaged for the campaign *Oxidation Mechanism Observations (OMO)* in August 2009.