Monitoring of various atmospheric constituents using a c.w. chemical hydrogen/deuterium laser and a pulsed carbon dioxide laser

Abstract

Applications of a c.w. chemical hydrogen/deuterium fluoride laser and a pulsed TEA CO2laser for monitoring of atmospheric trace constituents and process control are reported. The c.w. HF/DF laser has been used for field measurements of the HF concentration in the exhaust of an aluminium plant. The laser has also been operated as a DF laser for measurements of the HDO concentration in natural water samples. In addition, using a pulsed TEA CO2 laser in connection with the differential absorption technique, range-resolved ambient air measurements of the water vapour distribution in the vicinity of a cooling tower as well as measurements of the ethylene concentration over the area of a refinery have been performed. The results have been further evaluated using simple and reasonable propagation models. From this both the diffusion parameters and the total mass emission of a source could be obtained.