New handheld environmental monitor

For environmentalists, ecologists and geologists who would like to take accurate forest canopy measurements, examine mineral and soil composition on-site, evaluate water quality, monitor pollution or study volcanic gas, Ocean Optics (The Netherlands) introduces the handheld and field portable Jaz unit for easy and fast collection of valuable real-time data.

At its heart, Jaz has a miniature spectrometer and together with various light source modules Jaz is configurable to analyse a large variety of optical characteristics of solids, liquids, powders and gasses. Jaz has an integrated microprocessor and onboard display with data logging capability, so that full spectra data can be acquired, processed and stored without the need for a PC.

Jaz’s Ethernet and battery modules offer additional functionality for field use. Data collected with Jaz can easily be stored on a SD card for post processing. Jaz can even be remotely accessed once placed in the field. For example, a community of Jaz users could map atmospheric ozone measurements around the world and share the data nearly instantaneously.