15min:

PIN CHEN, EARTH & SPACE SCIENCES DIVISION, JET PROPULSION LABORATORY, CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, PASADENA, CA 91109.

Stable-isotope analysis provides valuable constraints on the global budgets of many important atmospheric species ( e.g. CO₂, CH₄, CO, and N₂O). High-resolution laser spectroscopy promises to substantially reduce the laborious sample pretreatments often required by isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS), the incumbent state-of-the-art, as well as being capable of readily resolving isotopic species of nearly equal masses ( e.g. CH₃D and ¹³CH₄). However, achieving sensitivity levels similar to that of IRMS has been a daunting task. This talk will provide a brief review of the progress and accomplishment to date in the application of laser spectroscopy to atmospheric stable-isotope analysis.