Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net 1867-8610 2 4 2009 10.5194/amtd-2-1783-2009 http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/2/1783/2009/ http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/2/1783/2009/amtd-2-1783-2009.html http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/2/1783/2009/amtd-2-1783-2009.pdf 1783 1835 2009-08-04 Field inter-comparison of eleven atmospheric ammonia measurement techniques K. von Bobrutzki C. F. Braban D. Famulari S. K. Jones T. Blackall T. E. L. Smith M. Blom H. Coe M. Gallagher M. Ghalaieny M. R. McGillen C. J. Percival J. D. Whitehead R. Ellis J. Murphy A. Mohacsi H. Junninen A. Pogany S. Rantanen M. A. Sutton E. Nemitz Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Edinburgh, UK Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Potsdam, Germany Department of Geography, King's College London, London, UK Energy Research Foundation of the Netherlands, Petten, The Netherlands School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Research Group on Laser Physics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary Department of Optics and Quantum Electronics, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Eleven instruments for the measurement of ambient concentrations of atmospheric ammonia gas (NH₃), based on eight different measurement methods were inter-compared above an intensively managed agricultural field in late summer 2008 in S. Scotland. To test the instruments over a wide range of concentrations, the field was fertilised with urea midway through the experiment, leading to an increase in the average concentration from 10 to 100 ppbv. The instruments deployed included three wet-chemistry systems, one with offline analysis (annular rotating batch denuder, RBD) and two with online-analysis (Annular Denuder sampling with online Analysis, AMANDA; AiRRmonia), two Quantum Cascade Laser Absorption Spectrometers (a large-cell dual system, DUAL-QCLAS, and a compact system, c-QCLAS), two photo-acoustic spectrometers (WaSul-Flux, Nitrolux-100), a Cavity Ring Down Spectrosmeter (CRDS), a Chemical Ionisation Mass Spectrometer (CIMS), an ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) and an Open-Path Fourier Transform Infra-Red (OP-FTIR) spectroscopy. Each instrument was compared with each other and with the average concentration of all instruments. 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