What Picarro’s Analytical Instruments Measure and the Technology Behind Them

Picarro’s analytical instruments measure greenhouse gases (GHG) and volatile organic compounds (VOC), according to the company’s site, and the core technology is CRDS—cavity ring-down spectroscopy. The site also points readers to a spectral library and a “Measurable Compounds” section for compound-level detail, so the practical answer is: check those two resources for the specific gases you need, then match the instrument to your application area.

What the instruments measure

Picarro describes its solutions as monitoring for GHG and VOC. The site does not publish a single consolidated list of every measurable compound on the pages reviewed; instead it separates the information into:

• Measurable Compounds — the reference list for what the instruments can detect.
• Spectral Library — the underlying spectral reference material tied to the CRDS approach.

That structure matters if you are evaluating fit. Rather than assuming a given gas is covered, start from the Measurable Compounds page and confirm the compound appears there before moving to instrument selection.

The technology: CRDS

CRDS stands for cavity ring-down spectroscopy. Picarro’s site includes a dedicated CRDS Technical Description page and a Picarro Patents page, which is where the mechanism is documented in detail. The site presents CRDS as the foundation of its analytical instruments rather than one option among several.

A useful way to think about the measurement task: if you need to detect a specific GHG or VOC at the trace levels relevant to emissions, leak detection, or ambient monitoring, the question to bring to the technical description is whether CRDS as implemented covers your target compound and concentration range. The Measurable Compounds list and spectral library are the checkpoints for that.

Applications the site names

Picarro lists application areas that indicate where these measurements are used:

The natural gas section is the most developed on the homepage, describing methane detection, real-time insights, and a mobile methane data platform for utilities. The other application areas are named but not expanded in the same excerpt, so treat them as entry points for further reading rather than as detailed capability claims.

How to decide whether it fits your measurement need

1. Identify the compound. Go to Measurable Compounds and confirm your target gas is listed.
2. Check the spectral basis. Review the Spectral Library and CRDS Technical Description to understand how the measurement is made and what the detection approach relies on.
3. Match the application. Use the applications list—air quality, pharmaceutical, food & beverage, agriculture and soil science, earth and environmental science, semiconductor—to see whether your setting is represented.
4. Look for supporting documents. The Resources section includes user manuals, data sheets, application notes, and software downloads, which are the place to verify specifications rather than relying on the homepage summary.

A common sticking point: the homepage frames the offering as “complete solutions” combining measurement, data analytics, guidance, and support. That is a positioning statement, not a specification. For a purchase or method decision, the data sheets and application notes under Resources are the documents that carry the verifiable detail.

What the site does not settle

The reviewed pages do not state pricing, and they do not present a full compound list in the homepage text. If your question is “can it measure compound X,” the answer has to come from the Measurable Compounds page and the spectral library, not from the general description. If your question is “which instrument for application Y,” the applications pages and data sheets are the next step.