Volcanic CO2 flux measurement at Campi Flegrei by tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy

Abstract

Near-infrared room temperature tunable diode lasers (TDL) have recently found increased usage in atmospheric chemistry and air monitoring research, but applications in volcanology are still limited to a few examples. Here, we explored the potential of a commercial infrared laser unit (GasFinder 2.0 from Boreal Laser Ltd) for measurement of volcanic CO2 mixing ratios, and ultimately for estimating the volcanic CO2 flux. Our field tests were conducted at Campi Flegrei near Pozzuoli, Southern Italy, where the GasFinder was used during three campaigns in October 2012, January 2013 and May 2013 to repeatedly measure the path-integrated mixing ratios of CO2 along cross sections of the atmospheric plumes of two major fumarolic fields (Solfatara and Pisciarelli). By using a tomographic post-processing routine, we resolved, for each of the two fields, the contour maps of CO2 mixing ratios in the atmosphere, from the integration of which (and after multiplication by the plumes’ transport speeds) the CO2 fluxes were finally obtained. We evaluate a total CO2 output from the Campi Flegrei fumaroles of ∼490 Mg/day, in line with independent estimates based on in situ (Multi-GAS) observations. We conclude that TDL technique may enable CO2 flux quantification at other volcanoes worldwide.