A Multi-Wavelength CRDS Instrument for the In Situ Measurement of Atmospheric Optical Absorption Navy SBIR FY2004.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2004.1 Topic No.: N04-139 Topic Title: A Multi-Wavelength CRDS Instrument for the In Situ Measurement of Atmospheric Optical Absorption Proposal No.: N041-139-0 Firm: Los Gatos Research 67 East Evelyn Ave. Suite 3 Mountain View, California 94041 Contact: Thomas Owano Phone: (650) 965-7772 Web Site: www.lgrinc.com Abstract: Los Gatos Research, Inc. (LGR) proposes to develop a field deployable instrument to measure in situ atmospheric absorption of aerosol samples via simultaneous determination of extinction and scattering coefficients at multiple wavelengths. The prototype will be rack mountable for use on research aircraft or ships, compact, robust, and capable of simultaneously measuring aerosol extinction and scattering coefficients to 0.1 Mm-1 at three wavelengths with a 1 second sampling rate. This highly innovative and unique instrument, based on cavity-enhanced laser spectroscopy, will operate autonomously and continuously stream data for storage or downlink. By significantly increasing the speed, sensitivity, and accuracy of in situ aerosol optical property measurements, this instrument will enhance studies of atmospheric aerosols and provide valuable data critical to the elucidation of aerosol effects on the radiative balance of Earth's atmosphere. This instrument will also provide information which will aid in the interpretation of data acquired by existing methods such as lidars, radiometers, and laser scatter probes. Data from this instrument will also be of great use in determining how in situ measurements compare to remote sensing measurements. Benefits: Commercial applications for this in situ aerosol instrumentation in the Federal Sector include a compact instrument targeted at both manned research aircraft in the troposphere and ship based research platforms. We foresee interest in a tropospheric flight instrument from US Government laboratories performing atmospheric research, including NASA-Ames Research Center, NASA Langley, NRL/Monterey, DOE, and NOAA/CMDL. In the Non-Federal commercial sector, applications include a low-cost instrument targeted at ground based research / automated monitoring stations, and OEM particle monitors. Ground-based instruments will be marketed to regulatory monitoring customers including power plants, factories, chemical plants, airports, public buildings, and various oversight agencies. We expect an early research and testing market, gradually evolving to voluntary and then mandatory compliance driven monitoring. For particle monitoring, high performance semiconductor manufacturing is evolving toward containment of the microenvironment within the tools and docking modules that transfer wafers between tools, and there is a strong need for ultrasensitive, in situ particle monitoring (ISPM) systems. Return