Flow-induced errors in airborne in situ measurements of aerosols and clouds

Spanu, Antonio; Dollner, Maximilian; Gasteiger, Josef; Bui, T. Paul; Weinzierl, Bernadett

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1963-2020

Articles | Volume 13, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1963-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

The Saharan Aerosol Long-range Transport and Aerosol-Cloud-interaction...

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1963-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 4

Research article

|

17 Apr 2020

Research article |

| 17 Apr 2020

Flow-induced errors in airborne in situ measurements of aerosols and clouds

Antonio Spanu, Maximilian Dollner, Josef Gasteiger, T. Paul Bui, and Bernadett Weinzierl

Data sets

ATom, A-LIFE, SALTRACE: Flow-induced errors in in-situ aerosol and cloud measurements. Spanu, A., M. Dollner, T. P. Bui, J. Gasteiger, and B. Weinzierl https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1784

Short summary

This study investigates how the airflow around wing-mounted instruments on fast-flying aircraft affects aerosol and cloud measurements. It combines airborne data with numerical simulations and shows that particle speed, particle concentration, and shape of water droplets are modified by the airflow. The proposed correction strategy for optical particle counters and optical array probes considers airflow effects and significantly reduces errors of derived ambient aerosol and cloud properties.