Miniature instruments for aerosol extinction at ambient conditions

Abstract:

Aerosol extinction is a fundamental parameter for the direct forcing of climate, visibility, and comparisons to remote sensing. Bringing air into an instrument “box” almost always changes the relative humidity and loses some dust or other large particles. I will show two techniques for miniature instruments that measure extinction at ambient conditions. One is a miniature sun photometer for vertical profiles. In the last year it has successfully gathered data on test flights with excellent performance and signal to noise. The second instrument is a miniature cavity ring down instrument open to the air. In both cases, small instruments require decisions about just what is necessary for the measurement rather than just scaling down larger designs. I will explore the rationale for some of these design choices.