Gloria Jacobson, Picarro product manager for greenhouse gas analyzers, has been very busy lately. As the picture shows, she has been testing products in nearby marsh lands. In addition, she has discussed field tests with independent scientists, and attended several conferences in the U.S. and China. Over the next few weeks, she will be sharing her insights through a series of blog posts. 

The embedded video, produced by Marsha Walton and reported by Miles O'Brien, describes how University of Colorado meteorologist David Noone and his team are working to understand how water moves around the planet. According to the accompanying article, "The measurements are made using an optical measurement technology which has only recently become available, and which allows continuous in situ observations to be made on a practical basis.

Serena Moseman-Valtierra, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and salt marsh ecologist at the University of Rhode Island, Kingston. Her research combines ecological field experiments, biogeochemical techniques and molecular tools to understand nitrogen cycling in coastal wetlands. 

An instrument near the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii has recorded a climate milestone: the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere there has exceeded 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in 55 years of measurement—and probably more than 3 million years of Earth history.

A few weeks ago, we posted a story from Upstream, the International Oil & Gas Newspaper, titled University of Wyoming researchers are on a quest to discover why big-city pollutant is now apperaing in sparsely populated area.

The March 22 issue of Upstream, The International Oil & Gas Newspaper, includes several articles on the Upper Green River Valley in Wyoming.

The Picarro InvestigatorTM for Methane Research sets outside the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) as the General Assembly 2013 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) opens on Monday, April 8.

If you're attending EGU and would like to join us for a test ride, sign-up at Booth 50. For complete details of our EGU activities and links to abstracts and posters, please go to the Coolest Customers at EGU.

The coolest presentations on earth are taking place this week at EGU 2103 in Vienna, Austria. We'll be giving you an advance look at each day's presentations and posters from Picarro customers and scientists.

A recent article from Hydrological Processes examines groundwater recharge and water quality following changes in land use in an area of the Loess Plateau of China. Changes in land use, particularly transitions between grasslands and forests, have potentially large impacts on water balance and salt fluxes in the ecosystem.

Australian Prime Minister (PM) Julia Gillard visited Dr. Margaret Barbour's lab during the launch of the University of Sydney's new Centre for Carbon, Water and Food.

A post by Katie Fehrenbacher on GigaOM notes that “Google showed off a few sample apps for its augmented reality Google Glass at the SXSW festival this week.” Katie is very clear about the app at the top of her wish list, “I really want an app that helps people see the world differently and potentially help with important global issues like climate change.” She adds that, “The concept could be pretty simple.

An article by John Metcalfe in the Atlantic Cities takes a detailed look at Los Angeles’ role in the Megacities Carbon Project. The article is from an essay in the ebook “City 2.0: The Habitat of the Future and How to Get There,” co-produced in partnership by The Atlantic Cities and Ted Books. The article also describes the California Laboratory for Atmospheric Remote Sensing (CLARS). While we readily admit to some bias, we specifically like...

An article by Andrew Berger in CleanTechnica describes the role Picarro can play in bringing transparency to natural gas production. Here are a couple of quotes from the article:

“We can identify source of methane emissions and natural gas pipeline leaks, pinpoint and quantify them on a map just by driving by. No one’s ever been able to do that before.”

Tara Struyk describes 9 ways innovative companies are using an iPad for business applications, including a description oh how the Picarro Surveyor incorporates the iPad for real-time visualization of natural gas leaks.

Take a look at how our Cool Customer, Alecia Nickless, is using Picarro technology to monitor ambient carbon dioxide levels in Cape Town, South Africa.

According to a news story from San Francisco Bay Area ABC TV station and online news outlet KGO, “An aircraft that looked like a fighter jet seen making low passes over the Bay Area Thursday [February 21] is the latest weapon scientists are using to fight air pollution, an airborne lab that could someday allow us to breathe cleaner air. It was out to capture ozone and greenhouse gases over the Bay Area in the never-ending battle to control air pollution. One of the under wing pods is equipped as an airborne science lab [powered by Picarro Greenhouse Gas Measurement Technology].

Rob Jackson, a professor at Duke University, gave an excellent TED talk on the environmental and economic impacts of fracking.

We would like to tell you about a session at the EGU 2013 General Assembly, April 7-12, 2013 in Vienna, which Picarro CTO Eric Crosson and Philippe Ciais of LSCE will convene.

COSTA RICA — Ricardo Sánchez-Murillo of the National University of Costa Rica is a Hydrologist who foresees water challenges affecting even the wettest regions of the globe, such as Central America. Applying his experience gained from the University of Idaho-Moscow, he’s intent on finding solutions by studying Costa Rica’s little understood water systems.

CHAJNANTOR PLATEAU, CHILE — Gregor Hsaio of Picarro talks to Picarro customer, Dr. Joe Galewsky of the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, on his long term water vapor isotope monitoring project in Chile. The location offers a unique opportunity to understand how climate change is affecting the atmospheric water vapor cycle. Here’s a transcript of that conversation...

CABAUW, NETHERLANDS — While carbon dioxide (CO2) currently contributes to two-thirds of anthropogenic radiative forcing, the effects from other greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as methane and nitrous oxide, remain largely uncharacterized and could significantly impact the future of global climate change.  In order to address uncertainties in emissions, the Integrated non-CO2 Greenhouse gas Observing System (InGOS) project is focused on improving and extending the European observation capacity for non-CO2 GHGs.

BRAZIL — The Brazilian bottled mineral water market is valued at a sizeable multi-billion liters produced annually. This large bottled water production associated with a surge in its seasonal demand presents a tempting opportunity for counterfeits to make their way into the Brazilian marketplace.

The Brazilian bottled mineral water market is valued at a sizeable multi-billion liters produced annually. This large bottled water production associated with a surge in its seasonal demand presents a tempting opportunity for counterfeits to make their way into the Brazilian marketplace.  In Prof. José Marcus Godoy’s study, the use of stable isotope analysis (d18O & dD) was proven to be a valuable tool in tracing the origin of the bottled water to at least the state level within the vast territory of Brazil.

While carbon dioxide (CO2) currently contributes to two-thirds of anthropogenic radiative forcing, the effects from other greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as methane and nitrous oxide, remain largely uncharacterized and could significantly impact the future of global climate change.  In order to address uncertainties in emissions, the Integrated non-CO2 Greenhouse gas Observing System (InGOS) project is focused on improving and extending the European observation capacity for non-CO2 GHGs.

Climate and earth scientists gathered in Tokyo for a seminar on Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS) hosted by Picarro’s partners in Japan, Sanyo Trading Co. Ltd.  Special guest speakers, Dr. Naohiro Yoshida of Tokyo Institute of Technology, Dr. Hideki Nara of the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) and Dr. Yoshito Chikaraishi of the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) provided talks on their diverse fields of research.  Highlights included Dr. Yoshida's detailed progress on the study of isotopomers of N2O, CO2 and other molecules in the

Ricardo Sánchez-Murillo of the National University of Costa Rica foresees water challenges affecting even the wettest regions of the globe, such as Central America. Applying his experience gained from the University of Idaho-Moscow, he’s intent on finding solutions by studying Costa Rica’s little understood water systems.

Hans-Christian Steen-Larsen is a Postdoctoral Researcher affiliated with the Danish Council for Independent Research, Denmark and CIRES, University of Colorado - Boulder, USA.

Housed in the first floor of the physics building of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland (UMCS-Lublin) is a lab that is responsible for some very impressive technical innovations to enable isotope analysis of a variety of light and heavy elements over the years.

I had the opportunity to speak with one of our customers, Dr. Joe Galewsky of the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, on his long term water vapor isotope monitoring project in Chile. The location offers a unique opportunity to understand how climate change is affecting the atmospheric water vapor cycle. Here’s a transcript of that conversation...

Congratulations to a community member many of you know:  Dr. David Noone, a CIRES Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder.  David has just been awarded the The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, or "PECASE". It is the highest honor given by the U.S. government to early career scientists. 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — My name is Rebecca Vincent. I attend Gunn High School and am interning at Picarro for the summer. I had the opportunity to visit the NASA Ames Research Center with several colleagues, Yoonah Danskin, Melissa Palmer, and Gloria Jacobson to watch the launch of the Alpha Jet on this-year’s GOSAT calibration mission.

BOULDER, CO — According to their website, the Global Monitoring Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory (NOAA/ESRL/GMD) “conducts sustained observations and research related to source and sink strengths, trends, and global distributions of atmospheric constituents that are capable of forcing change in the climate of Earth through modification of the atmospheric radiative environment, those that may cause depletion of the global ozone layer, and those that affect baseline air quality."

FRANCE / RUSSIA — With a large percentage of its area covered by forest (800×106 hectares) and huge stocks of carbon (roughly 320 gigatons), Siberia is a significant player in the global carbon budget. Yet, there are many unknowns when it comes to the region’s biogeochemistry and the distribution and emissions of compounds that play a role in tropospheric chemistry and climate change.

BEIJING, CHINA — I had the opportunity to speak with one of our customers, Dr. Zhonghe Pang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, on using water isotopes to understand and mitigate climate change including: land use and ground water recharge, modeling geothermal reservoirs, and testing the CO2 storage capacity of deep saline aquifers.

Dr. Ira Leifer, Paige Farrell and Dan Culling recently completed a methane measurement transect of the southern US while en-route to deliver their Picarro flux analyzer to a waiting ship in Louisiana.

Few scientific meetings match the level of organization and attendee engagement as does this Global Monitoring Annual Conference (GMAC).  This past May, GMD celebrated its 40th year of these meetings in Boulder, CO.  One thing many people may not know about this year’s meeting is that it was funded entirely by private donations, which were primarily from individuals.  In the following article, Picarro’s greenhouse gas product manager, Gloria Jacobson, checks in with GMD director, Jim Butler, after the event.

Part science documentary, part humanitarian expose´ and part adventure flick, “Glacial Balance” profiles the work of ice core expert Dr. Lonnie Thompson and the plight of local people who are dependent on the Andean glaciers.

Natural gas will not live up to its promise without the vital support of a society focused on transparency.

One mustn’t look too far to find a story about natural gas production - whether from the perspective that it will transform the global economy or drive the climate past the point of no return. Whether you’re for gas or against it, the only chance we have to make clearheaded decisions about the issue is through credible measurements and complete transparency.

I just got an email from our customer Hans Christian Steen-Larsen who is at NEEM:

"Greetings from NEEM where I'm setting up my vapor system once again. This time I have the Picarro from France - the serial number is HBDS012. The good things was that the analyzer started up right away after having been combat off-loaded on the put in flight (open snow landing)."

With the release of our newest instrument, the G5101-i for N2O concentration and isotope analysis, Picarro is ready to give scientists (not to mention policy makers and concerned citizens) more insight into the global nitrogen cycle and its interdependence with agriculture, climate, and the Earth’s natural ecosystems. Now our customers can easily and precisely measure the four most critical greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), water vapor (H2O), and nitrous oxide (N2O).

Our customers often measure some unusual things with our instruments. Liquids, gases and solids of all types, from deep sea vent water to bat breath to moth wings. We've collected a list of the weirdest… and we’ve added a few of our own as well as a few that we just made up. See if you can spot the fake analyses!

Presentations at EGU 2012 that You Won't Want to Miss!

One thing I probably do a little too much of in this job is travel. While it can be a hassle, you do get to see a lot of places, meet a lot of interesting people and grow on both personal and professional levels. And like all matters in life, there are the little things that bring a smile to your face; learning cultural stereotypes are indeed expressed through national train operations; most people are nice, courteous and generally happy to talk to a visitor; every local food/drink is just great; and last but not least, the in-flight magazines can be good entertainment.

Methane and City CarbonTM have become buzzwords here at Picarro. Surely anyone familiar with carbon emissions and climate change knows that methane is a potent greenhouse gas and most emissions originate from cities.

The Centre for Ice and Climate at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark is one of the birthplaces of ice core science.  In 1954 Willi Dansgaard [1] suggested the correlation between the oxygen isotope ratio and temperature at which the precipitation was formed and postulated that past climate changes could be discerned by such measurements. Ten years later, in 1964, Willi Dansgaard outlined the capabilities and limitations of the isotopic paleothermometer for glaciological uses in Greenland and Antarctica in a milestone publication in Tellus [2].

It's commonly said here at Picarro that our customers have more interesting lives than we do -- we're always receiving fantastic photos of someone with one of our instruments in some remote and often idyllic field location. We thought it would be fun to periodically share some of the amazing locations where our customers are doing field work. Here are the five that we've come up with this quarter including links to their research sites and a few selected photos (mouse over photos for captions): 

In my role as an Applications Scientist here at Picarro, I’m always getting questions from customers like, “So what’s new?” and “What new technology breakthroughs are you guys working on?” To better address these questions, I spoke with Picarro Senior System Engineer Dr. Yonggang He about the recent technology innovations that have enabled us to boost the performance of our isotopic carbon analyzers. Here’s a bit of our discussion:

Update on Emissions in Davos -- From Penn State Professor of Meteorology, Ken Davis

Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of working with collaborators from Penn State, Climmod, Sigma Space, NOAA and others to demonstrate the power of using high precision instruments coupled with advanced modeling techniques to measure greenhouse gas emissions in cities. While many cities are taking a step in the right direction by volunteering to report their emissions estimates, the self-reported numbers are only based on calculations, not on measurements of what is in the air.  

Bravo to CNN for a thought provoking program on cocoa farm child labor in the Ivory Coast. The missing component from the discussion is that there is a solution that would go much further than the current crop of toothless fair trade ‘certifications’. Stable isotopes do a great job of distinguishing cocoa grown in different regions (see data inset).