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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-2026-2428</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Long-Term Open-Path Dual-Comb Spectroscopy for Urban CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; Monitoring</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Schmitt</surname>
<given-names>Tobias D.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0636-2264</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>Dubroeucq</surname>
<given-names>Romain</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5097-6963</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sindram</surname>
<given-names>Moritz</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6782-1530</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Butz</surname>
<given-names>André</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0593-1608</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</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>Pfeifer</surname>
<given-names>Thomas</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>Oberthaler</surname>
<given-names>Markus K.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Kirchhoff Institute for Physics (KIP), Heidelberg University, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP), Heidelberg University, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE), Heidelberg University, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), Heidelberg University, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>08</day>
<month>05</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>17</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Tobias D. Schmitt 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-2026-2428/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2428/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2428/egusphere-2026-2428.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2428/egusphere-2026-2428.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Accurate quantification of urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can benefit from path-averaged, high-precision, high-temporal-resolution measurements that complement point sensors and passive remote sensing. Among open-path techniques, dual-comb spectroscopy (DCS) stands out as a particularly capable candidate, offering simultaneous broadband coverage, an absolute SI-traceable frequency axis, and sufficient spectral radiance for multi-kilometer paths. Here we present an open-path dual-comb spectrometer using two commercial, self-referenced, turn-key frequency combs operated continuously in Heidelberg, Germany, over an urban landscape. The instrument allows to infer column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; along a 3.1 km absorption path. During routine observations within the evaluation period from September 2025 to February 2026 the system achieved a data coverage of 85 %, with losses primarily attributable to visibility-limiting weather conditions such as fog and heavy rain. The instrument precision, characterized by the overlapping Allan deviation under stable atmospheric conditions, reaches 4.79 ppm &amp;radic;s for CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;, equivalent to 0.28 ppm at five minutes averaging time. These values are on par with or better than previous open-path DCS experiments and represent roughly one order of magnitude improvement over a co-deployed open-path Fourier transform spectrometer operating on the same path. The two instruments differ by a small bias of 0.16 ppm for CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;. The results demonstrate that high-quality, long-term open-path DCS operation is achievable with readily available hardware, making the technique accessible to the broader atmospheric science community for applications ranging from urban-flux monitoring and network-scale observations to the validation of spectroscopic databases.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg</funding-source>
<award-id>INST 35/1790-1 FUGG</award-id>
<award-id>INST 35/1597-1 FUGG</award-id>
<award-id>INST 35/1503-1 FUGG</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft</funding-source>
<award-id>INST 35/1790-1 FUGG</award-id>
<award-id>INST 35/1597-1 FUGG</award-id>
<award-id>INST 35/1503-1 FUGG</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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