The airborne chicago water isotope spectrometer: an integrated cavity output spectrometer for measurements of the HDO / H2O isotopic ratio in the Asian Summer Monsoon

Abstract

We describe a new version of the Chicago Water Isotope Spectrometer (ChiWIS), designed for airborne measurements of vapor-phase water isotopologues in the dry upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) aboard research aircraft. This version of the instrument is a tunable diode laser (TDL), off-axis integrated cavity output spectrometer (OA-ICOS). The instrument was designed to measure the HDO / H2O ratio in the 2017 Asian Summer Monsoon flight aboard the M-55 Geophysica during the StratoClim campaign, and so far has also flown aboard the WB-57F in the 2021 and 2022 ACCLIP campaigns. The spectrometer scans absorption lines of both H2O and HDO near 2.647 μm wavelength in a single current sweep, and has an effective path length of 7.5 km under optimal conditions. The instrument utilizes a novel non-axially-symmetric optical component which increases the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 3. Ultra-polished, 4 in. (101.6 mm) diameter cavity mirrors suppress scattering losses, maximize mirror reflectivity, and yield optical fringing significantly below typical electrical noise levels. In laboratory conditions, the instrument has demonstrated a 5 s measurement precision of 3.6 ppbv and 82 pptv in H2O and HDO, respectively.