FTIR Spectroscopy of the Atmosphere Part 2. Applications

Abstract

The basic principles and methods of FTIR spectroscopy of the atmosphere were summarized in our previous paper 1. Thanks to the continuous technical development of FTIR spectroscopy (increasing throughput, dynamic alignment, more sensitive detectors, brighter sources, increasing scanning speed, development of focal plane array detectors, flexible spectral manipulations and data handling, etc.) in the last decade, this method has offered a great number of unique applications. In this review article, attempt to summarize the results of the most significant and frequent applications of FTIR spectroscopy to the study of the atmosphere. The possibilities of techniques applied in this field, the extractive and open path measurement methods, and the in situ IR absorption measurements such as remote sensing using the sun, the sky, or natural hot objects as IR sources of radiation are discussed. We have made a special focus to FTIR emission spectroscopy, the so‐called passive technique, since there are a number of originally hot gaseous samples such as volcanic plumes, automobile gases, stack gas plumes, or flames. Most of the subjects discussed in this article can be closely related to environmental analysis of the atmosphere. There is a wide range of atmospheric environmental applications of FTIR spectroscopy; therefore, we have focused our attention in the second part of the article on applications of FTIR spectroscopy in the atmosphere (troposphere) and stratosphere. We have summarized the basic literature in the field of special environmental applications of FTIR spectroscopy, such as power plants, petrochemical and natural gas plants, waste disposals, agricultural, and industrial sites, and the detection of gases produced in flames, in biomass burning, and in flares.

Keywords:

• FTIR spectroscopy
• atmosphere
• gas analysis
• hot plumes
• environmental FTIR

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the former Digilab Europe Ltd. (Germany) and the Hungarian Balaton Project for partial financial support of our environmental gas spectroscopy research. Special thanks are due to Ms. Zs. Kovács, Ms. K. Módly, and L. Hajba for their valuable contributions to the preparation of this article. We are particularly grateful to Professor I. S. Butler (McGill University, Montreal) for valuable discussions during preparation of the manuscript.

Notes

¹See more details in the first part of the paper 1