HIGHGAS: Metrology for High Impact GreenHouse GASes
Drivers and requirements
The measurement of greenhouse gases is pivotal to understanding changes in the Earth's climate. National and international legislation is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and requiring their measurement in the atmosphere.
Long-term observations based on accurate and stable standards ensure that data meets the requirements of WMO compatibility goals and environmental policy makers, as well as academic and regulatory users.
Beyond the state of the art
Disseminate stable, SI traceable, coherent and internationally comparable reference standards that meet WMO compatibility goals, by achieving:
- Passivation chemistry to guarantee stability and accuracy over the timescales required
- Novel methods to quantify target components in the matrix gas and improve purification systems
- Matching of isotope distribution and matrix of reference standards to address systematic biases from instrumentation
- Portable calibration devices for dissemination to the field and for reactive components
- Optical transfer standards based on laser absorption spectroscopy to validate field measurements
- Ratios of stable isotopologues to trace the origin or sink
- Develop cheaper field techniques (e.g. OIRS)
- Improved atomic weights for calculating amount fractions of high accuracy gas standards
The research within this EURAMET joint research project receives funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme, ERA-NET Plus, under Grant Agreement No. 217257.