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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-1686</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Airborne performance assessment of the DLR MIRO MGA&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; quantum cascade laser spectrometer for fast N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O measurements</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Knez</surname>
<given-names>Leon</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Eckl</surname>
<given-names>Maximilian</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff10">
<sup>10</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff11">
<sup>11</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Waldmann</surname>
<given-names>Paul</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7894-3676</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Fiehn</surname>
<given-names>Alina</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3376-4405</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pühl</surname>
<given-names>Magdalena</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2110-5173</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Aseev</surname>
<given-names>Oleg</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Diskin</surname>
<given-names>Glenn S.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3617-0269</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>DiGangi</surname>
<given-names>Joshua P.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6764-8624</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Choi</surname>
<given-names>Yonghoon</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6529-4722</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Miech</surname>
<given-names>Jason A.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0356-5088</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bennett</surname>
<given-names>Ryan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gatebe</surname>
<given-names>Charles K.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9261-2239</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Dean-Day</surname>
<given-names>Jonathan M.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Poudyal</surname>
<given-names>Rajesh</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Lee</surname>
<given-names>Gangwoong</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kim</surname>
<given-names>Jeonghwan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Roiger</surname>
<given-names>Anke</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), 82234 Wessling, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>MIRO Analytical AG, Wallisellen, Switzerland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Analytical Mechanics Associates, Hampton, VA, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, TN, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>National Suborbital Research Center, Grand Forks, ND, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff8">
<label>8</label>
<addr-line>Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, Moffett Field, CA, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff9">
<label>9</label>
<addr-line>Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Republic of South Korea</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff10">
<label>10</label>
<addr-line>formerly at: Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), 82234 Wessling, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff11">
<label>11</label>
<addr-line>now at: E.ON Energy Markets GmbH, Essen, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>10</day>
<month>04</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>36</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Leon Knez et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-1686/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-1686/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-1686/egusphere-2026-1686.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-1686/egusphere-2026-1686.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Nitrous oxide (N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O) is the most dominant precursor of ozone-depleting substances and the third most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas, with agriculture contributing the largest share of emissions (56 %). Over the past two decades, airborne in-situ measurements have become increasingly important for studying emission and transport of N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O in the atmosphere, also driven by the development of more precise and simultaneously faster Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL)-based spectrometers. However, many QCL-based spectrometers exhibit sensitivities to environmental and flight-related parameters that can vary rapidly (&amp;le; 1 s), such as static or cabin pressure and aircraft roll and pitch angles. The impact of changing ambient water vapor is particularly critical due to both dilution and quantum-mechanical effects. Because the variability of N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O in the lower troposphere is often very small (&amp;lt;1 ppb) relative to its high background (&amp;sim; 338 ppb), even minor variations in these parameters can significantly affect data quality and must be corrected. Although many instruments can resolve such small concentration changes, their typical temporal resolution of 1 Hz may limit the application of advanced measurement techniques such as eddy covariance on fast-moving aircraft. Here, we present and evaluate a new instrument setup for precise (&amp;lt; 0.2 ppb) and high-frequency (10 Hz) airborne in-situ N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O measurements in altitudes up to 4500 m based on a MIRO MGA&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; QCL spectrometer (MIRO Analytical AG). The instrument was successfully deployed during two airborne science missions, namely onboard the unpressurized DLR Cessna during the Greenhouse Gas Monitoring (GHGMon) campaign in 2023 in the Netherlands, as well as onboard the NASA DC8 during the Satellite Investigation of the Asian Air Quality (ASIA-AQ) campaign in 2024. Specifically, we evaluate and compare different water vapor correction approaches using ASIA-AQ data sampled within the tropical boundary layer over South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan, which partly were characterized by specifically high ambient humidity (up to 30000 ppm H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O). The water vapor correction methods include an empirical approach that relies on both native and corrected MIRO in-flight water vapor measurements, as well as an approach by an updated version of the MIRO specific fitting software. Comparison with N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O measurements from a well-established instrument onboard the NASA DC8 shows agreement within combined measurement uncertainties for all tested water vapor correction approaches, albeit special caution is needed for humidities larger than 15000 ppm. The new water vapor corrected data shows a 42 % better precision than with original default settings of the instrument. We further show that the instrument setup is insensitive to flight parameter changes such as roll and pitch angle of the aircraft, and allows for stable measurements even under challenging conditions such as in the turbulent boundary layer. This instrument setup enables improved characterization of N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O emissions and sources from the agricultural sector which is, in particular, relevant for tropical regions with strong agricultural activity and high humidity, where observational data remain scarce.</p>
</abstract>
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