The chemical composition of the atmosphere has a decisive effect on many areas related to population health, weather and climate. For this reason, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO*) has defined about 50 essential climate variables (ECVs*) considered as crucial for a better understanding of the functioning of the atmosphere and its impact on the air quality. In Switzerland and around the world, various networks of complementary measurements (i.e., WMO, NOAA *, AGAGE *, ICOS *, ACTRIS *) operate stations to document the concentration of these species in the atmosphere over time. However, newly emitted species still lack certified reference material (CRM). For substances prone to adsorption on metal surfaces, the stability over time of current CRM usually provided as gas pressurised in cylinders is difficult to evaluate.
In this project, the Gas Analysis Laboratory at METAS will continue to develop reference gas mixture to support atmospheric monitoring of chosen ECVs, i.e. halogenated compounds included those banned by the Montreal Protocol, volatile organic compound (VOCs*) of relevance for air quality, and water vapour in humid air at concentration and pressure corresponding to alpine, polar and upper atmosphere measurements. It will fulfil the requirements to have the possibility of being designated reference laboratory.
To this end, the laboratory will continue to develop and improve its generation capabilities based on dynamic methods and its infrastructure (permeation, dynamic dilution).
