AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Suggested Calibrations for Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometry to Reduce Uncertainty and to Improve Quantification
BENJAMIN A. NAULT, Hongyu Guo, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Douglas Day, Jose-Luis Jimenez, CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder
Abstract Number: 539 Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods
Abstract The Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is a widely used instrument to measure the chemical composition of submicron, non-refractory particulate matter (PM1) in real time. The AMS can produce quantifiable speciated mass concentrations and size distributions for numerous species. However, to achieve this, to reduce the uncertainty in the measurement, and to properly interpret comparisons with other measurements, careful calibration of the AMS is necessary. Suggested calibrations have been highlighted during various AMS User’s Meetings; however, it could be daunting to find the proper resources to understand what calibrations are necessary, the frequency for the calibrations, and the associated uncertainty by neglecting to perform one type of calibration. Here, we overview the calibrations typically performed for a high-performance aircraft AMS, and break down which calibrations are accessible for most AMS users versus which calibrations can be more challenging. With this, we detail the type of calibrations and the associated uncertainty in neglecting these calibrations. Also, the suggested frequency of calibration, depending how the AMS is being used (e.g., flight AMS and therefore being turned on and off every day versus ground AMS that remains on for extended periods of time), will be discussed. These results will be placed into context of comparisons with other measurements during recent studies.