Isotopic Water Measurements

Video showing Picarro L1102-i measuring water isotopes on the Sacramento River.

World Class Research

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.

Dr. Peter Tans
Dr. Pieter Tans

Senior Scientist
NOAA's
Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory

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.

Marc L. Fischer

Staff Scientist
Atmospheric Science Department
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

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.

davis_ken_sm.jpg
Dr. Ken Davis

Department of Meteorology
Penn State University

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.

Will A Brand
Willi A. Brand

Head of IsoLab
MPI-BGC Jena

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

Colm Sweeney
Colm Sweeney

NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL)