Compact CO2 Instrumentation for Small Aerial Platforms

Over the past decade, the importance of understanding the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases has been recognized. A variety of research studies funded by NASA, DOE and NOAA to measure the fluxes of CO2 from average conditions have been performed. In particular, flux measurements of CO2 in the boundary layer are critical toward understanding the carbon budget for this important greenhouse gas. The World Meteorological Organization has met its goal of 0.1 ppm CO2 accuracy for land based field sensors with gas chromatography and non-dispersive infrared instruments. However, these instruments are poorly suited for small aerial platforms because of their high power requirements, large size and/or weight specifications. This proposal directly addresses NASA's need for high accuracy, small aerial platform, CO2 instrumentation for their Sierra and Dragon Eye UAVs, other unmanned aircraft such as launched and tethered balloons, and remote, unattended ground platforms where low power, compactness and self calibration are important. This instruments fits in with NASA's Technology Roadmap for satellite validation under the ASCENDS program and the OCO-2 mission, as well as independent high resolution, non-integrated CO2 profiles. To address this instrumentation need, Southwest Sciences proposes to develop a compact (< 1 L), low power (< 2 watts), light weight (~1kg) diode laser based instrument designed to achieve dry-air corrected, high accuracy measurements of CO2. We will target NASA's desired accuracy of 1 ppm CO2 (~1 part in 400) or better in 1 second or less using wavelength modulation spectroscopy in the 2.7 micron CO2 absorption band.

High accuracy CO2 instruments for small aerial platform use would bridge the gap between current land based and satellite platforms. NASA would have a new tool to make high accuracy mixing ratio measurements in challenging environments where manned airborne observations are risky (i.e. North Slope of Alaska).

A direct commercial application of this project is the sale of research and environmental monitoring instrumentation to academic researchers, government agencies for large research and monitoring programs, and commercial entities for regulatory monitoring applications. Although this proposal specifically targets small aerial platforms, the final product will be appropriate after minor adaptation, as a rack mount and even as a hand held ultra portable instrument. Broader commercial application areas for this sensor include gas leak sensing of pipelines, fire detectors for commercial and private aircraft, combustor feedback control sensors, and process control sensors for energy and chemical production industries.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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