Abstract. The TCCON (Total Carbon Column Observing Network) and most NDACC (Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change) sites assume an ideal ILS (instrumental line shape) for analysis of the spectra. In order to adapt the radiant energy received by the detector, an attenuator or different sizes of field stop can be inserted in the light path. These processes may alter the alignment of a high-resolution FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrometer, and may result in bias due to ILS drift. In this paper, we first investigated the sensitivity of the ILS monitoring with respect to application of different kinds of attenuators for ground-based high-resolution FTIR spectrometers within the TCCON and NDACC networks. Both lamp and sun cell measurements were conducted after the insertion of five different attenuators in front of and behind the interferometer. The ILS characteristics derived from lamp and sun spectra are in good agreement. ILSs deduced from all lamp cell measurements were compared. As a result, the disturbances to the ILS of a high-resolution FTIR spectrometer with respect to the insertion of different attenuators at different positions were quantified. A potential strategy to adapt the incident intensity of a detector was finally deduced.