A long-path differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) system is introduced. A photodiode array is employed as the detector to replace the complicated SD detector which consists of a PMT and a slotted disk. The properties of the detector and the spectrometer unit such as offset, dark current, noise, linearity, resolution, and wavelength range were measured. This system was also tested to measure SO2 and NO2 in the atmosphere. The detection limits of this system for SO2, and NO2 over a 713 m light path were determined.