Corrections promise more accurate CO2 measurements from space

An illustration of super precise gas sensing

Source: © A Fleisher/NIST

Improvements to cavity ring-down spectroscopy could also benefit quantum science

US-based scientists have cut out an electronic cause of error that has limited how accurately satellites can measure how much carbon dioxide is in the air from space. ‘We have identified, quantified and corrected for a largely overlooked and never-corrected measurement bias,’ says Joseph Hodges, research engineer at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg.