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Welcome to the Atmospheric Trace Molecules Spectroscopy Laboratory (ATMOS-Spec-Lab)

The ATMOS-Spec-Lab will develop and apply spectroscopic techniques to characterize atmospheric composition and distribution of key trace-gases and aerosol optical properties of interest to Public Health, Air Quality and Climate Change research.

Questions of scientific interest include:

• Is tropospheric composition as measured from ground the same as that measured from space?
• How does carbonaceous particulate matter form in the atmosphere, and does it selectively slow down photochemistry?
• Do we understand the distribution of trace-gases and aerosols?

Field measurements

Experimental techniques in field applications include:

• Long-path Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (LP-DOAS) (ppt-file)
• High-resolution Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTS)
• Multi-Axes DOAS (MAX-DOAS) and Imaging DOAS (I-DOAS) (ppt-file)
• Spectroradiometer measurements of photon-actinic fluxes, and photon-irradiance fluxes (ppt-file)

Laboratory studies

Specific laboratory experiments aim to understand the sources and sinks of field observables, e.g. glyoxal (CHOCHO):

• Gas-to-particle conversion processes
• Oxidation mechanism of hydrocarbons
• European Photo Reactor (EUPHORE)

Numerical modeling

Numerical models integrate field and laboratory observations. A model can ideally be trusted for the specific purpose that it has been built. Broadly spoken, the work carried out in the ATMOS-Spec-Lab aims to test and improve the representation of atmospheric chemical and physical processes in models.

• Master Chemical Mechanism
• Radiative transfer modeling (TUV, Tracy-II)