HR: 0830h
AN: V11C-0513    [PDF]
TI: Initial Field Trials for Development of RMDI, a Miniaturized UV/Visible Spectrometer Designed for Multi-gas Remote Sensing of Volcanic Plumes
AU: * Wardell, L J
EM: wardell@eps.mcgill.ca
AF: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, 3450 University Street, Montreal, QC H3A 2A7 Canada
AU: Morrow, B
EM: res@resonance.on.ca
AF: Resonance, Ltd., 143 Ferndale Drive North, Barrie, ON L4N 9V9 Canada
AU: Stix, J
EM: stix@eps.mcgill.ca
AF: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, 3450 University Street, Montreal, QC H3A 2A7 Canada
AB: This is a preliminary report of multi-gas measurements of SO2 and NO2 with a miniaturized UV spectrometer. The RMDI (Resonance Mini-DOAS I) is a miniaturized zenith or slant-viewing, charge-coupled device (CCD) spectrometer. For the field trials, the RMDI operates in the 295 to 437 nm region with a spectral resolution of 0.4 nm and a field of view of 2 degrees. The instrument employs an Ocean Optics USB2000 spectrometer with the addition of a UV objective, multi-cell calibration system, visible blocking filter, palmtop computer (also serving as the power source), and miniature tripod with manual and motorized scanning. The entire package weighs less than 3.5 kg. Field trials at Tarumae volcano, Japan (July 05, 2003) measured 25.9 Mg/d (tonnes per day) of SO2 by doing walking traverses under the small volcanic plume. The results were calculated using three separate wavelengths for SO2 (310, 312, 315 nm) and all three results were found to be consistent with each other. Trials at a coal-fired power plant (Southwest Power Plant, Springfield, MO, USA, August 28, 2003) were able to obtain SO2 and NO2 readings of 9.8 and 0.72 Mg/d, respectively. The NO2 measurement was based on the spectra wavelength range of 411 to 415 nm. Laboratory and field testing is planned to further evaluate the precision, accuracy and applications of this type of instrument for remote sensing of volcanic plumes and to evaluate its performance relative to the correlation spectrometer (COSPEC), the accepted standard for volcanic SO2 measurements.
DE: 8409 Atmospheric effects (0370)
DE: 8419 Eruption monitoring (7280)
DE: 8494 Instruments and techniques
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting