Characterization and application of an externally mounted catalytic converter for aircraft measurements of NOy

A novel design for an airborne NOy converter was implemented, characterized in the laboratory, and used extensively for in situ tropospheric and stratospheric measurements of total reactive nitrogen (NOy). During field deployments, the converter is mounted outside the aircraft fuselage, avoiding the need for an inlet line. In flight, the converter can be calibrated by the addition of standard gases close to the sample inlet, compensating for any changes in the instrument sensitivity caused by changing operating conditions. The system has been used successfully during several Stratosphere Troposphere Experiments by Aircraft Measurements campaigns in the lowermost stratosphere and upper troposphere for the measurement of total reactive nitrogen. The detection limit of the system is approximately 100 pptv for 10 s integrated data (2σ). The precision, deduced from the reproducibility of the in-flight calibrations, is 7% and the accuracy is about 30%. Laboratory studies demonstrate that interference from HCN, NH3, and CH3CN is negligible for background conditions.