We need to accurately measure quite small differences in greenhouse gas abundance.  The new generation of cavity ring down instruments promises to make our life a lot easier.  They are very accurate right out of the box, and all indications are that they will require an order of magnitude less attention during long field deployments than what we have become used to.

As state and federal agencies undertake programs to control greenhouse gas emissions, it will be necessary to verify that targeted emissions reductions are being achieved.  Until recently, instruments providing sufficient performance required frequent attention.  The advent of sensitive methods using high finesse cavities provides a solution that reduces the need for frequent and costly instrument calibration.

Greenhouse gas measurement networks are limited by the cost of the personnel required to maintain them. Picarro has made highly accurate, unattended concentration measurements remarkably easy, dramatically advancing our ability to deploy networks to quantify sources and sinks. We were stunned by the quality of the data from their instruments, and are similarly impressed with the dedication of their staff.

Finally, there seems to be a viable competition to mass spectrometry, which has dominated Stable Isotope ratio analysis for more than 60 years. CRDS seems to be capable of delivering the required precision. The water analyzer is remarkably simple to operate and delivers data that have proven comparable to mass spectrometric results. I expect these instruments are here to stay and will be operated along with mass spectrometers in many stable isotope labs.

Without the advances made by Picarro, these autonomous measurements would not have been possible.