Mini-DOAS: balloon-borne experiments, atmospheric compounds measurements, flight of 28 April 2011

The mini-DOAS (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) instrument is of light weight (7 kg) and low power consumption (10 W), and thus, can easily be deployed on remote sensing balloon payloads or aircrafts. In its core the instrument houses two temperature and pressure stabilized commercial Ocean Optics spectrometers (USB/2000 (f/4)) covering the wavelength range from 340 to 500 nm at a spectral resolution of 0.8-1 nm (USB/2000) with 8 to 10 detector pixels/Full width at Half Maximum (FWHM) of the instrument response func-tion, depending on wavelength. By continuously scanning the atmosphere, the instrument provides time-resolved vertical profile information of UV/vis absorbing trace gases. Depending on the balloon payload, the float duration varies between several hours up to a whole day. This flight is involved in the ENRICHED campaign.