The development of increasingly sensitive and robust instruments and new methodologies are essential to improve our understanding of the Earth’s climate and air pollution. In this context, Dual-Comb spectroscopy (DCS) has been successfully demonstrated as a remote laser-based instrument to probe infrared absorbing species such as greenhouse gases. We present here a study of the sensitivity of Dual-Comb spectroscopy to remotely monitor atmospheric gases focusing on molecules that absorb in the ultraviolet domain, where the most reactive molecules of the atmosphere (OH, HONO, BrO...) have their highest absorption cross-sections. We assess the achievable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the corresponding minimum absorption sensitivity of DCS in the ultraviolet range. We propose a potential light source for remote sensing UV-DCS and discuss the degree of immunity of UV-DCS to atmospheric turbulences. We show that the characteristics of the currently available UV sources are compatible with the unambiguous identification of UV absorbing gases by UV-DCS.

The development of increasingly sensitive and robust instruments and new methodologies are essential to improve our understanding of the Earth’s climate and air pollution. In this context, Dual-Comb spectroscopy (DCS) appears as an emerging spectroscopy methodology to detect in situ, without air-sampling, atmospheric trace-gases.DCS is a Fourier-transform type experiment that takes advantage of mode-locked femtosecond (fs) pulses. This methodology appears highly relevant for atmosphere remote-sensing studies because of its very fast acquisition rate (>kHz) that reduces the impact of atmospheric turbulences on the retrieved spectra. DCS has been successfully applied in near-infrared (NIR) spectral ranges for atmospheric greenhouse gas monitoring (water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane) [1-2].Its implementation in the UV range would offer a new spectroscopic intrumentation to target the most reactive species of the atmosphere (OH, HONO, BrO...) as they have their greatest absorption cross-sections in the UV range. UV-DCS would therefore be an answer to the lack of variability of today operationnal and in situ monitoring instrument for those reactive molecules.We will present a potential light source for remote sensing UV-DCS and discuss the degree of immunity of UV-DCS to atmospheric turbulences. We will show to which extent the characteristics of the currently available UV sources are compatible with the unambiguous identification of UV absorbing gases by UV-DCS. We will finally present the performances of UV-DCS in terms of concentration detection limit for several UV absorbing molecules (OH, BrO, NO2, OClO, HONO, CH2O, SO2). This sensitivity study has been recently published [3] and the main results will be presented. [1] Rieker, G.B.; Giorgetta, F.R.; Swann, W.C.; Kofler, J.; Zolot, A.M.; Sinclair, L.C.; Baumann, E.; Cromer, C.;Petron, G.; Sweeney, C.; et al. « Frequency-comb-based remote sensing of greenhouse gases over kilometer air Paths ». Optica 1, p. 290–298 (2014)[2] Oudin, J.; Mohamed, A.K.; Hébert, P.J. "IPDA LIDAR measurements on atmospheric CO2 and H2O using dual comb spectroscopy," Proc. SPIE 11180, International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2018, p. 111802N (12 July 2019)[3] Galtier, S.; Pivard, C.; Rairoux, P. Towards DCS in the UV Spectral Range for Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Trace Gases. Remote Sens., 12, p.3444 (2020)