Field Work Equipment at Penn State
The Deployable Equipment Laboratory is a Penn State facility that houses a variety of deployable field sampling equipment for a variety of environmental applications that are made available to researchers on an as-needed basis.
All instruments are calibrated and maintained by Deployable Equipment Laboratory staff and are made available by reservation, on a first-come, first-serve basis. Users will receive equipment operation training basics, as well as written standard operating procedures.
Work with Us
The Deployable Equipment Laboratory is available to assist both Penn State researchers and external clients from industry, government, and other universities.
Capabilities
High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer
The Aerodyne HR-ToF-AMS measures mass, chemical composition, and size of non-refractory submicron particles in real-time. It provides size-resolved composition information for particulate ammonium, nitrate, sulfate, chloride, and organics.
Distributed Temperature Sensor
The Oryx DTS is an autonomous (0-5 km) – 4 channel, compact system designed for harsh and remote environments. DTS measures temperatures by means of optical fibers.
Electrical Resistivity and Induced Polarization Instrument (ERI)
The Syscak Pro Switch 48 Resistivity ERI is an all-in-one multi-node resistivity and induction polarization imaging system.
Fourier Transform Infrared Analyzer (FTIR)
The California Analytical Instruments 700 FTIR analyzer provides fast, continuous measurement of gases that have an infrared absorption spectrum.
GSSI EMP-400
The GSSI EMP-400 profiler is a powerful electromagnetic induction tool that was built using a proprietary source cancellation and calibration system to create superior signal stability.
INNOVA Photoacoustic Multi-Gas Infrared Analyzer
The California Analytical Instruments 1412 IR is bench-top analyzer that can be used to measure any gas in the IR absorption spectrum.
LI-COR Portable Photosynthesis and Fluorescence System
The LI-6400XT is a gas exchange system that computes photosynthesis from differences in CO2 and H2O between in-chamber conditions and pre-chamber conditions.
Particle Size Analyzer
The TSI Nanoscan SMPS Nanoparticle Sizer 3910 and Optical PSA is a portable real-time instrument quickly and accurately measures particles ranging three orders of size magnitude from 10 nanometers to 10 micrometers.
Deployable Equipment Laboratory in Action
Research collaborations with the Deployable Equipment Laboratory
Imaging Underground Wastewater
Researchers use the electrical resistivity to image the subsurface in the Florida Keys to determine the impact of subsurface injection of wastewater into the saline Keys groundwater system.
Soil Health
Deployable Equipment Laboratory equipment has helped researchers measure the effect of grazing of cover crops on infiltration rate, evaluate the effects of an organic soil amendment on soil health, and compare soil properties in tomatoes grown in no-till versus plastic covered beds.
Lanternfly Impacts on Trees
The Eissenstat lab conducts research on the effects of spotted lanternfly on physiology and health of common landscape trees in Pennsylvania. The team used the LiCor 6400 to measure leaf photosynthesis, conductance, and transpiration in the field to detect plant stress responses to spotted lanternfly feeding.
Deployable Equipment Lab Staff
Address
Deployable Equipment Laboratory
156 Energy and the Environment Laboratory Building
Hastings Road
University Park, PA 16802