AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
A New Method to Quantify Mineral Dust, Sea Salt, Biomass Burning, and Other Aerosol Species from Aircraft Platforms using Single Particle Mass Spectrometry
KARL D. FROYD, Daniel Murphy, Charles Brock, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jack Dibb, Jose-Luis Jimenez, Agnieszka Kupc, Ann M. Middlebrook, Gregory Schill, Kenneth Thornhill, Christina Williamson, James Wilson, Luke Ziemba, NOAA ESRL and CIRES
Abstract Number: 711 Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods
Abstract Single-particle mass spectrometer (SPMS) instruments characterize the composition of individual aerosol particles in real time. Their high sensitivity to a wide variety of aerosol species, size-resolved capability, and ability to characterize internally and externally mixed aerosol species make SPMS instruments well suited to airborne studies of atmospheric aerosol composition. However, quantitative measurements using SPMS systems alone are inherently problematic. We present a new method that combines single-particle composition from the NOAA Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry (PALMS) instrument with independently measured quantitative particle size distributions to determine absolute number, surface area, volume, and mass concentrations of mineral dust, biomass burning, sea salt, and other climate-relevant atmospheric particle types, with fast time response applicable to aircraft sampling. A statistical error analysis indicates that particle type concentrations can be determined for abundances above ~10 ng m-3 with sample times of only a few minutes. Rare particle types require longer sampling times. We also determine absolute mass concentrations of aerosol sub-components like sulfate or organic material within a particle class or across several classes. We summarize the principal sampling considerations and measurement criteria for deriving particle type concentrations from PALMS and other SPMS instruments, and we conclude with general recommendations for implementing the method in airborne composition studies. The wealth of information afforded by composition-resolved size distributions for all major aerosol types represents a new and powerful tool to characterize tropospheric and stratospheric aerosol properties in a quantitative fashion.