Is it possible to detect a person from a distance of 500 feet by measuring the presence of carbon dioxide?
A. Three possible techniques come to mind. One would be a spectroscopic analysis of an air column between point A and point B, 500 feet away. Atmospheric measurements of CO2 are sometimes made spectroscopically but are more typically (and accurately) made using an infrared gas analyzer (either with in situ air samples or air samples collected by flask). The second technique would be through chemical absorption and reaction. For example, C14 measurements are made using trays with NaOH solutions. The NaOH absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere. HCl is used to regenerate the CO2, and following a purification process the CO2 is analyzed in a proportional counter to assess the C14 content. A third possibility would be to use a mass spectrometer to analyze an air sample (mwt 44 or 45 for 12CO2 and 13CO2).
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- Is it possible to get a read distance of 10 - 15 feet from a passive label attached to a bag similar to RFID labels attached to bags at airports?
- Is it possible to detect a person from a distance of 500 feet by measuring the presence of carbon dioxide?
