Purchase Order More Than Doubles the Number of Picarro Analyzers Used by the China Meteorological Administration; Deal Represents One of the Largest in Picarro History

Sunnyvale, Calif. — ; December 10, 2009-Picarro, Inc., the maker of the world's highest performing and easiest to use gas analyzers, today announced that the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the primary government entity responsible for greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring and measurement in the People's Republic of China, will more than double the number of Picarro analyzers used by the CMA. The CMA purchase order, representing one of the largest deals in Picarro company history, will dramatically expand the size and scope of the CMA's GHG monitoring network.

"The CMA is tasked by the Chinese government with accurately measuring and monitoring greenhouse gas mixing ratios in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, methane and related tracers such as isotopes and carbon monoxide," said Professor Lingxi Zhou, principle investigator for Greenhouse Gases & Related Tracers, Deputy Director of the Centre for Atmosphere Watch and Services (CAWAS), Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CAMS). "Picarro analyzers are accurate, portable and easy to use, and they require minimal calibration. This makes them the ideal instrument for our expanding GHG monitoring network."

Professor Lingxi Zhou has served as the Referee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Round-robin Reference Gas Inter-comparison since 2002 and the Task Force Bureau (TFB) member of the IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories since 2008.

The CMA's purchase of additional Picarro analyzers comes shortly after the company announced that the WMO's World Calibration Centre for Greenhouse Gases will use the Picarro analyzer to conduct on-site system and performance audits at Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) baseline stations. For more information, refer to the 15th WMO/IAEA Meeting of Experts on Carbon Dioxide, Other Greenhouse Gases, and Related Tracer Measurement Techniques, September 7-10, 2009, in Jena, Germany. WMO scientists are using Picarro's technology to enhance the accuracy of GHG measurements taken throughout the world. The news also came days before the world's leading governments, GHG scientists and climatologists gathered in Copenhagen, Demark for COP15: the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

"We are honored that the CMA has selected Picarro to help it expand one of the world's fastest-growing GHG monitoring networks," said Michael Woelk, CEO of Picarro. "We encourage other nations attending COP15 to follow suit, so that future implementations of carbon policy are based on more reliable and cost-effective scientific facts instead of only by inventory-based estimates. With the WMO and CMA using our analyzers, Picarro is rapidly becoming the de facto standard for GHG monitoring stations and climate scientists around the globe."";

Picarro analyzers are manufactured at the company's Sunnyvale, Calif. headquarters and exported to countries worldwide. Backed by Picarro's proven wavelength-scanned cavity ring down spectroscopy (WS-CRDS) technology, Picarro's analyzers provide the technological breakthrough that finally delivers on all aspects for measuring the impact of greenhouse gases (GHGs) on climate change, arguably the single biggest issue facing mankind today. Picarro GHG analyzers provide the simplicity, precision and measurement portability that has been lacking in previous technologies - instruments many more times expensive to run or unsuitable for high performance in situ measurements.

Picarro will be exhibiting and presenting at the upcoming 2009 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco. Government organizations, scientists and media interested in meeting with the company at the event can contact Iain Green at (408) 962-3942 or igreen@picarro.com.