Karsa unveils ORBION: a pan‑molecular air analyzer

Helsinki, Finland — 3 September 2025 — Karsa announces ORBION, an instrument that detects and quantifies thousands of chemicals in ambient air, delivering an order‑of‑magnitude improvement in sensitivity and resolution over leading sensors. The first deployment, in collaboration with the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), University of Helsinki, will take place at CERN’s CLOUD chamber, a flagship facility for atmospheric‑chemistry research.‍

First deployment with INAR at CERN’s CLOUD chamber

Karsa and INAR are installing ORBION at CERN’s ultra‑clean CLOUD chamber, where researchers study how trace molecules nucleate and transform the particles that influence weather and climate. The chamber can simulate cosmic‑ray effects on atmospheric chemistry, enabling highly controlled experiments.

ORBION’s high resolution, pan‑molecular coverage, ultra‑sensitivity, and browser‑based dashboards stream live molecular spectra, cutting months of manual stitching between raw signal and discovery.

“ORBION is the culmination of years spent building a universal detector without sacrificing precision for coverage and making it rugged enough for continuous, autonomous operation,” said Aleksei Shcherbinin, Chief Product Officer at Karsa Oy.

“At CLOUD, we routinely investigate the interplay of hundreds to thousands of air molecules,” said Dr. Xu‑Cheng He, co‑PI at CLOUD experiment and Academy Research Fellow at INAR, University of Helsinki. “ORBION’s breadth and streamlined analysis pipeline will enable us to map those interactions more completely and much faster than before.”

“At CERN, our work with INAR and Karsa is a joint research activity. And it’s not only a chance to gain new scientific insights but also an opportunity to showcase the breakthrough technology that was developed here in Helsinki to the broad international research community,” said Prof. Tuukka Petäjä, INAR, University of Helsinki.

Key benefits

• For science: Collapses multiple instruments into one — cleaner experiments and minutes to insight, not months of data‑stitching.
• For operators & industry Real‑time molecular alarms, process control, and trace‑contamination detection enabled by 24/7 uptime with lower consumables and fewer service visits.

The ORBION R&D project has been supported by Business Finland.

Any reference to CERN and the CLOUD experiment does not imply endorsement.

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