Aerosol Properties & Processes: Instruments

Aerosol Microphysical Properties (AMP)

AMP instrument suite
Christina Williamson, Adam Ahern, and Chuck Brock with the AMP suite of instruments during SABRE 2022. Photo: Chelsea Thompson, NOAA / CIRES

The Aerosol Microphysical Properties (AMP) instrument suite (consisting of the NMASS, UHSAS, and CMASS) measures aerosol size distributions for particles with diameters from 3 to 40,000 nm at 1 Hz resolution. For SABRE, the largest size particle expected to survive the aerosol inlet is 1,000 nm.

The nucleation-mode aerosol size spectrometer (NMASS) measures aerosol size distribution for 3 - 60 nm diameter particles by differential counting using five controlled supersaturation channels and optical particle detection.

Reference: Williamson, C., A. Kupc, J. Wilson, D.W. Gesler, J.M. Reeves, F. Erdesz, R. McLaughlin, and C.A. Brock, Fast time response measurements of particle size distributions in the 3-60nm size range with the nucleation mode aerosol size spectrometer, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, doi:10.5194/amt-11-3491-2018, 2018.

The ultra-high sensitivity aerosol spectrometer (UHSAS) measures aerosol size distribution for 60 - 1,000 nm diameter particles by optical particle sizer using an intracavity laser.

Reference: Kupc, A., C. Williamson, N.L. Wagner, M. Richardson, and C.A. Brock, Modification, calibration, and performance of the ultra-high sensitivity aerosol spectrometer for particle size distribution and volatility measurements during the Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) airborne campaign, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, doi:10.5194/amt-11-369-2018, 2018.

The coarse-mode aerosol size spectrometer (CMASS) measures aerosol size distribution for 400 - 40,0000 nm diameter particles by optical particle sizer with a large sensing volume and a multi-wavelength ("white") light source.

Reference: PALAS Cloud Droplet Analyzer

Field Projects / Platforms