Tropospheric HO determination by FAGE

Abstract

In the measurement of tropospheric HO we have employed three low-pressure laser-excited fluorescence (LEF) experimental systems. These instruments operate by expanding the ambient air flow via a nozzle, followed by transit down a flowtube through a detection region traversed by the excitation laser beam. This sampling method we named FAGE (fluorescence assay with gas expansion). The instruments employed a hydrocarbon reagent, added below the nozzle, to remove HO for background measurement. In the second and third instruments, air sampling via parallel nozzles and tubes, with reagent addition alternating between two channels, permitted continuous signal measurement with simultaneous measurement of background. The first two instruments (FAGE1 and FAGE2) used 282 nm HO excitation by frequency-doubled tunable dye lasers, pumped by pulsed Nd:YAG lasers at 10-30 Hz repetition rate. The third instrument (FAGE3) uses 308 nm excitation in which the dye laser is pumped by a copper vapor laser, pulsed at 5600 Hz.