Instrumental Analysis:

Atmospheric Gases
Andrew Gewirth Chem 315 6 February 2017
 The Keeling Curve

Many questions: Why Mauna Loa? How is CO2 concentration measured?

Doesnt CO2 concentration vary with location? Why should we care?
What is the historical level?
Keelings discovery: CO2 background concentration
was the same at many different locations around
the earth (airplane, ice floe, Hawaii)
How to measure
CO2 - manometer

A mannometer
measures gas
volume vs. Hg.
How is CO2
measured?
How to measure atmospheric CO2 a
better way

3N-5 normal modes

for linear molecules

A=cl
How to measure atmospheric CO2?

ftir

Differential LIDAR in
Non dispersive IR detector place now
What about the historical record?

Where do these values come from? How can we measure [CO2]

if there isnt (wasnt) anyone making the measurement in 1250
AD? Why should we believe (trust) these historical results?
Unpacking history
Analytical Gas Chromatograph
 The historical record

Petit, J.R., J. Jouzel, D. Raynaud, N.I. Barkov, J.-M. Barnola, I. Basile, M. Benders, J.
Chappellaz, M. Davis, G. Delayque, M. Delmotte, V.M. Kotlyakov, M. Legrand, V.Y.
Lipenkov, C. Lorius, L. Ppin, C. Ritz, E. Saltzman, and M. Stievenard. 1999.
Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice
core, Antarctica. Nature 399: 429-436