The mini-LHR was ground tested from Castle airport in Central Valley, CA during the ASCENDS (Active Sensing of CO₂ Emissions over Nights, Days, & Seasons) DC-8 Field campaign in February 2013. Column measurements from the mini-LHR were compared with CO₂ measurements from various instruments on the DC-8 during a spiral flight path centered at Castle airport. On this field campaign we migrated from LABView software and a National Instrument DAQ, to Python software and lock-in amplifiers. These changes reduced the scan time from 20 minutes to about 2 minutes - an important step to synching with AERONET.