Tunable Laser Spectrometers- from Earth Polar Ozone and Climate Studies to Mars Evolution and Planetary Chemistry

We will describe the maturation of tunable laser spectrometers over the last three decades as semiconductor laser technology has produced high power single mode lasers operating at room temperature. Numerous examples will be given of applications in Earth science (e.g. polar ozone, atmospheric transport, photo- and heterogeneous chemistry, terrestrial isotope ratios), Mars evolution from Curiosity results, and how tunable laser spectrometers are poised to reveal gas composition and isotope ratios in the inner and outer planets like Venus, Titan and Saturn. The research described here was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).