Dr. David Noone of the University of Colorado explains, "While muchattention has been focused on the role of CO2 in driving global warming,changes in the water cycle and the amount of water vapor in the air also havea significant impact. Simply stated, we need more water field data, bothconcentration and isotope ratios. But before the advent of portable isotopeanalyzers, obtaining water isotope data from a remote site required capturingsamples and chemically processing these before separately analyzing them fordeuterium and oxygen-18 in two separate mass spectrometers. Until now, thishas precluded continuous real-time isotope monitoring." He notes that thepreliminary Mauna Loa data for delta-D and delta-18O are consistent withexpected values, and the high frequency variability seen with the G1102-ireveals a richness in the isotope data that could only have bean dreamed ofonly a few years ago.

Dr. Joe Galewsky, University of New Mexico Department of Earth andPlanetary Sciences, in an interview with Nature added, "Real time isotopetracking could be a new way of detecting fundamental changes in Earth'satmospheric circulation." He points out that Mauna Loa was the obvious placeto conduct the experiment because of its high elevation and its location inthe subtropics, which is influenced by both tropical and northerly atmosphericcurrents.

Michael Woelk, CEO of Picarro states, "We recognize that continuedresearch and monitoring of GHGs (greenhouse gases) must occur on many frontsbefore a complete picture, and ultimately a comprehensive solution, can bedeveloped. This will include a combination of both field and laboratorystudies. For this reason, we have designed all of our WS-CRDS gas and isotopeanalyzers to deliver the same combination of high performance and automatedease of use in both the laboratory and extremely demanding field settings. Assuch, we are pleased to participate in this landmark study and gratified tosee the preliminary data validate our approach."

Picarro, Inc. is a privately held company dedicated to developinginstrumentation for the highest sensitivity, precision and accuracymeasurements of specific molecules of interest in environmental analyses,process monitoring, and emissions control. The company is a leader inwavelength scanned cavity ring down spectroscopy (WS-CRDS) technology witheight exclusive licenses from Stanford University patents and nine of its ownon WS-CRDS extensions. Visit us at http://www.picarro.com.

Contact Information:

Iain Green, Director of Marketing, igreen@picarro.com, (408) 962-3942

SOURCE Picarro, Inc.