Distributed Feedback Interband Cascade Laser Based Laser Heterodyne Radiometer for Column Density of HDO and CH4 Measurements at Dunhuang, Northwest of China

External-cavity diode laser-based near-infrared broadband laser heterodyne radiometer for remote sensing of atmospheric CO2

A near-infrared broadband (1500-1640 nm) laser heterodyne radiometer (LHR) with a tunable external-cavity diode laser as the local oscillator is developed and the relative transmittance, which represents the absolute relationship between the measured spectral signals and the atmospheric transmittance, is derived. High-resolution (0.0087 cm^-1) LHR spectra in the spectral region of 6248.5-6256 cm^-1 were recorded for the observation of atmospheric CO₂. Combined with the relative transmittance, the preprocessed measured LHR spectra, the optimal estimation method, and the Python scripts for computational atmospheric spectroscopy, the column-averaged dry-air mixing ratio of CO₂ of 409.09 ± 8 ppmv in Dunkirk, France on February 23, 2019, was retrieved, which is consistent with GOSAT and TCCON data. The near-infrared external-cavity LHR demonstrated in the present work has a high potential for use in developing a robust, broadband, unattended, and all-fiber LHR for spacecraft and ground-based atmospheric sensing that offers more channel selection for inversion.

Optical amplification enables a huge sensitivity improvement to laser heterodyne radiometers for high-resolution measurements of atmospheric gases

A novel, to the best of our knowledge, performance-enhanced laser heterodyne radiometer has been developed by utilizing a semiconductor optical amplifier to amplify the collected weak solar radiation in an optical fiber. High-spectral-resolution measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide column absorption are used to validate the technique and performance of the developed instrument. The implementation of optical amplification led to a 9-times improvement in sensitivity according to the Allan variance analysis for noise fluctuations, and resulted in a 7.7-times enhancement in measurement precision for atmospheric carbon dioxide. The promising results showed the great potential of employing this type of compact fiber-optics-based spectral radiometer for applications such as atmospheric greenhouse gas sensing.

Impact of Lock-In Time Constant on Remote Monitoring of Trace Gas in the Atmospheric Column Using Laser Heterodyne Radiometer (LHR)

The time constant selected for lock-in amplification (LIA) has a crucial impact on observed line shapes in laser heterodyne spectroscopy, in particular in the case of ground-based remote monitoring of trace gas in the atmospheric column using laser heterodyne radiometer (LHR). Conventional simulation could not allow validation of LHR spectra measured in a real and complex atmospheric environment exhibiting large temporal and spatial variability (humidity, temperature, pressure, etc) that impact significantly the measured LHR spectra profiles. High-precision spectral measurement is thus crucial to avoid any spectral distortion resulting from the measurement. In this paper, the impact of LIA time constant on spectral line shape is investigated for LHR operating in continuous laser tuning mode, based on analysis of laboratory heterodyne spectra, in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), line width broadening, absorption depth and line shift. With respect to the given frequency scanning speed in continuous mode and to the halfwidth of the absorption feature to scan, a reasonable scanning time ΔTscan, the time needed for scanning laser frequency through the halfwidth ΔνHWHM of the absorption line, equal to or longer than 14 times of the LIA time constant τ is concluded in order to efficiently reduce the noise while without significant shift and distortion of the line shape. Experimental validation was carried out using a laser heterodyne absorption spectroscopy approach in the laboratory. Four different combinations of time constants τ and scanning time ΔTscan were used to record heterodyne spectra of a CH4 absorption line near 1242.00 cm−1 in continuous laser tuning mode. An optimal combination of a scanning time of 137 ms with a time constant of 1 ms was obtained. This optimal combination was used for ground-based measurements of CH4 and N2O in the atmospheric column by LHR. The extracted LHR spectrum is in good agreement with a referenced TCCON (Total Carbon Column Observing Network) FT-IR (Fourier-transform infrared) spectrum.