We propose herein a new principle to measure atmospheric NO using an NO
2 detector. We tested this method to determine whether precise measurements are achievable or not when using a laser induced fluorescence detector for NO
2. To convert NO to NO
2, O
3 is added to the sample air. When adding O
3, not all of the NO is used in the generation of NO
2: some of the NO does not react with the O
3 and some of the formed NO
2 reacts with O
3.Using a box model we simulated the time evolution of the NO
2 concentration after the addition of the O
3. We found the optimum condition of reaction time and O
3 concentration by both calculation and experiment. To verify the usefulness of ambient air measurements using this technique, observations were conducted. NO concentrations obtained by this system were compared with those of the chemiluminescence technique and resulted in excellent agreement.
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