Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP Award 2016

At the occasion of the Swiss Geoscience Meeting 2016, the ACP Award for Atmospheric Research was presented to Simon Eyer (Empa) for his PhD thesis "Real-time analysis of d¹³C- and dD-CH₄ in ambient air with laser spectroscopy: Method development, validation and applications". This year's award was sponsored by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).

Simon Eyer's thesis describes an important instrumental development for the measurement of isotope ratios in ambient CH₄ (both in C and H atoms), which allows continuous in-situ isotopic characterization and thus a source attribution for CH₄. This is relevant for the understanding of sources and potential reduction of the important greenhouse gas on various spatial scales. The thesis spans an impressive range of fields from detailed technical work (the development and careful testing of the preconcentrating device) to the deployment of the complete instrument in the field, collecting high quality field data over an extensive period and using two models to evaluate inventories in a top-down approach. Scientifically, his thesis spans from adsorption studies to source attribution.