Isotopic CO2 Instrumentation for UAV Measurements

Knowing atmospheric 13CO2/12CO2 ratios precisely is important to understanding biogenic and anthroprogenic sources and sinks for carbon. However, instruments currently available have attributes that are not favorable for distributed UAV deployment; they are large, require a lot of power, are very expensive, do not have fast response and/or do not sufficiently correct for temperature and pressure. Southwest Sciences Inc. proposes to develop unique UAV instrumentation to measure 13CO2/12CO2 ratios with a targeted precision of 0.2 parts per thousand () at 1 Hz. In this program, we will precisely and rapidly measure atmospheric 13CO2/12CO2 ratio using a pressure, temperature and moisture insensitive optical technique. The proposed light weight ( & lt;5kg) instrument will consume low power ( & lt;50 W), and not require consumables such as liquid nitrogen, and operate unattended for long periods. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: Federal benefits include the availability of rugged, high precision UAV compatible instruments for the rapid and precise measurements of important isotopic gases such as CO2 that will improve our knowledge for predicting and modeling atmospheric dynamics and climate change. Atmospheric research communities have interest in isotopic measurements instrumentation which can be developed from technology described in this proposal. An extension of the technology developed in this proposal would apply to other isotopic gases of interest such as - 18O for O2, CO, CO2 and N2O as well as 13C measurements for CO and Methane and other isotopologs. Expanded market areas for this technology beyond atmospheric research include applications in homeland security, medical diagnostics, combustion control, and industrial process monitoring. Examples of specific areas of interest include diagnosis of bacterial lung infections such as ventilator acquired pneumonia and tuberculosis, on-site inspections for underground nuclear testing, and energy exploration.