Westsystems Srl

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The Westsystems Fluxmeters are portable instrument for the measurement of fluxes that use the accumulation chamber method. This method studied for soil respiration in agronomy (Parkinson) for soil degassing in volcanic areas (Tonani), as well as in landfills and has been designed by WEST Systems in cooperation with G. Chiodini and R. Cioni to obtain a portable instrument that allows the performance of measurements with very good accuracy in a short time.

West Systems can provide 2 instrument typologies, that differ from one another in the carbon dioxide detector:

LICOR Based instrument(s) :: The carbon dioxide detector is a LICOR - LI820 (or LI840) This release of fluxmeter is very accurate in the range from 0 up to 300 moles/sm/day of carbon dioxide. The instrument can be expanded with additional detectors to measure hydrogen sulfide and / or methane diffuse flux. .. Download :: Brochure :: Manual

Drager based instrument(s) :: The carbon dioxide detector is a Drager Polytron IRCO2 a very robust/rugged double beam infrared absorption spectrometer. The instrument is very accurate in the range from 0.5 up to 1000 moles/sm/day of carbon dioxide.The instrument can be expanded with additional detectors to measure hydrogen sulfide and / or methane diffuse flux. Download :: Brochure :: Manual

Accumulation Chambers for both instruments
WEST Systems provide two accumulation chambers (100 mm height / 200 mm height) in order to extend the flux measurement range. Two pipes connect the accumulation chamber to the instrument. A mixing device, alkaline battery supplied, allow a optimal mixing of the gas inside the chamber to increase the measurement accuracy. The LI-800 version allows you to carry out measurements in a wider range of carbon dioxide flux, in particular for small flux, where the measurements carried out by means of the Drager version are affected by a rather significant error.
Palmtop Computer (All instruments)
A small, pocket size, computer (PDA) manage the instrument, showing the result(s) of measurement in real time. Since 2005 the connection between the PDA and instrument is realized using bluetooth/wireless devices.
Accumulation Chamber Method
The flux measurement is very easy and very fast and can be done under difficult operative conditions.	Since 1994 several surveys have been carried out to monitor areas with volcanic hazard and to map CO2 degassing areas.
HSL Flux
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Flux Map
Flux map in a landfill. (ITER 2000)	Zoom in...