The art of measuring

The structure is growing, bar by bar. Modern art? Not at all! This is research. The multi-armed construct is an eddy covariance station that measures the exchange of water and trace gases between the atmosphere and the soil on a field near Jülich. Prof. Nicolas Brüggemann and his colleagues are expanding the station by a new component: an isotope analyser. This will allow them to find out where the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, and the water molecules that the station detects come from. This is revealed by certain types of atoms in the substances, so-called stable isotopes. The proportions of these vary according to their origin.