Temporal column abundances of atmospheric nitrous oxide at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

This dissertation reports the detection of real time concentration levels of nitrous oxide in the earth's atmosphere at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Tennessee and describes the integration of a suntracker with the 5-meter Littrow spectrometric system at the University of Tennessee Complex Systems Laboratory.

Atmospheric nitrous oxide (N₂O) is an important trace gas in the earth's atmosphere. Not only does it have implications to stratospheric ozone depletion, it is an important greenhouse gas. Since the main source of N₂O result from agricultural activities, this study is motivated in part by of the location of the University of Tennessee, which is in a large agricultural area. Tropospheric abundances of N₂O are mostly constant worldwide with only slight local variations due to N₂O sources. This study will quantify any local variations in column abundances of nitrous oxide using ground based solar infrared spectroscopy.