Congratulations to the team from National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Tsukuba, Japan, and Sophia University, in Tokyo, Japan! They successfully performed continuous field measurements of carbonyl sulfide (COS), which were possible due to the high accuracy of a small, low-cost Aeris Technologies gas analyzer. These measurements can shed light on local contributions to stratospheric sulfate aerosol production and help trace gross primary production on a global scale.
Development of compact continuous measurement system for atmospheric carbonyl sulfide concentration
Kazuki Kamezaki, Sebastian O. Danielache, Shigeyuki Ishidoya, Takahisa Maeda, and Shohei Murayama, Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss. [preprint], in review, 2023
Link to article: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-209
Abstract: Carbonyl sulfide (COS), the most abundant sulfur-containing gas in the atmosphere, is a source of stratospheric sulfate aerosol (SSA) and is used as a tracer for gross primary production (GPP). However, tropospheric COS sources and sinks entail great uncertainty due to the limited number COS observation sites. Thus, field measurements of COS concentrations worldwide are necessary to estimate the contribution of SSA and the global scale of GPP. Recently, MIRA Pico, a portable continuous COS concentration analyzer using mid-infrared absorption, has been released. MIRA Pico has a lower cost and is smaller than conventional laser COS analyzers. We modified and tested the MIRA Pico for atmospheric COS concentration measurements. The modified MIRA Pico exhibited ± 7.9 picomol (pmol) mol−1 (1σ) for a 15-min average, and calibration gas consumption was as low as no more than 3 L d−1. We also used the modified MIRA Pico for observations at Tsukuba, Japan. The observed COS concentrations ranged from 425 to 604 pmol mol−1, averaging a standard deviation (1σ) of (505 ± 33) pmol mol−1. The observed values agree with previous observations and exhibit clear diurnal variations. Furthermore, we installed the modified MIRA Pico in a passenger car to observe the COS concentration distribution in Tsukuba City.
