Ground based in situ measurements of tropospheric hydroxyl radicals were conducted by folded long-path laser absorption as part of the field campaign POPCORN in August 1994. The OH instrument used an open optical multiple-reflection cell of 38.5 m base length through which the laser beam was passed up to 80 times. The broadband emission of a short-pulse UV laser together with a multichannel detection system allowed the simultaneous observation of six OH absorption lines in a spectral interval of Δ&lgr;≂0.24 nm at 308.1 nm (A2&Sgr;+, v'=0←X2&Pgr;, v″=0 transition). Along with the OH radicals, the trace gases SO2, HCHO, and naphthalene were measured by this technique. The large spectral detection range covered a multitude of rotational absorption lines of these trace gases which were all used for multicomponent analysis, thus allowing a specific and sensitive detection of tropospheric OH radicals. An average 2&sgr; detection limit of 1.5¿106 OH/cm3 for an integration time of 200 seconds and an absorption light path length of 1848 m was determined from the field measurements. In total, 392 OH data were obtained by long-path absorption during 16 days of field measurements. The observed OH concentrations reached peak values of 13¿106 cm-3 at noon. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996