OPERA: A New Platform for Next Generation Aerosol Sensing

SURESH DHANIYALA, Ajay Sonar, Sreekesh Kookkal, Brandon Beattie, Clarkson University

     Abstract Number: 478
     Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods

Abstract
Optical scattering-based aerosol sensing has traditionally had focused aerosol beams intersect a narrow collimated laser beam, with the resultant scattered light collected from a wide range of angles and redirected to a sensitive photomultiplier tube. With this design, analysis of the scattered signals can provide accurate size distribution measurements over a broad size range but these instruments can be expensive, large, and difficult to operate. We have been developing a new OPto-Electrical Real-time Aerosol (OPERA) Sensor, in which an unfocused aerosol flow is passed through a highly focused aerosol beam, and the scattered light is collected on one or more photodiodes located very close to the scatter region, with no collection optics used. This design is similar in principle to that of low-cost optical sensors. While this design results in signals that are complicated to invert for size distribution measurements, the simplicity of the design allows for low-cost aerosol sensing with broad range of applications. In this talk, I will briefly review the theoretical basis for the OPERA (TelosAir Corp), the use of AI/ML for characterizing instrument transfer function, and discuss the first deployment of the system for monitoring air quality on the International Space Station (ISS).