Title
Technical note: Aerosol light absorption measurements with a carbon analyser – Calibration and precision estimates
Author
Ammerlaan, B.A.J.
Holzinger, R.
Jedynska, A.D.
Henzing, J.S.
Publication year
2017
Abstract
Equivalent Black Carbon (EBC) and Elemental Carbon (EC) are different mass metrics to quantify the amount of combustion aerosol. Both metrics have their own measurement technique. In state-of-the-art carbon analysers, optical measurements are used to correct for organic carbon that is not evolving because of pyrolysis. These optical measurements are sometimes used to apply the technique of absorption photometers. Here, we use the transmission measurements of our carbon analyser for simultaneous determination of the elemental carbon concentration and the absorption coefficient. We use MAAP data from the CESAR observatory, the Netherlands, to correct for aerosol-filter interactions by linking the attenuation coefficient from the carbon analyser to the absorption coefficient measured by the MAAP. Application of the calibration to an independent data set of MAAP and OC/EC observations for the same location shows that the calibration is applicable to other observation periods. Because of simultaneous measurements of light absorption properties of the aerosol and elemental carbon, variation in the mass absorption efficiency (MAE) can be studied. We further show that the absorption coefficients and MAE in this set-up are determined within a precision of 10% and 12%, respectively. The precisions could be improved to 4% and 8% when the light transmission signal in the carbon analyser is very stable. © 2017
Subject
Aerosol light absorption
Black carbon
Elemental carbon
Mass absorption efficiency
Environment & Sustainability
Urbanisation
2015 Nano Technology 2015 Urban Mobility & Environment
OPT - Optics CAS - Climate, Air and Sustainability
TS - Technical Sciences ELSS - Earth, Life and Social Sciences
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.05.031
TNO identifier
766480
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
ISSN
1352-2310
Source
Atmospheric Environment, 164 (164), 1-7
Document type
article