Articles | Volume 13, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4885-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4885-2020
Review article
 | 
15 Sep 2020
Review article |  | 15 Sep 2020

Assessment of particle size magnifier inversion methods to obtain the particle size distribution from atmospheric measurements

Tommy Chan, Runlong Cai, Lauri R. Ahonen, Yiliang Liu, Ying Zhou, Joonas Vanhanen, Lubna Dada, Yan Chao, Yongchun Liu, Lin Wang, Markku Kulmala, and Juha Kangasluoma

Related authors

A 21-year global dataset of particle number concentrations for aerosol-cloud interaction studies
Aino Ovaska, Daniel Holmberg, Elio Rauth, Mansour Alghamdi, Paulo Artaxo, Eija Asmi, John Backman, Benjamin Bergmans, Matthew Boyer, Liezl Bredenkamp, Maurizio Busetto, Delano Campos De Oliveira, Juan Andrés Casquero-Vera, Darius Ceburnis, Tak Chan, Tommy Chan, Sebastien Conil, Daniele Contini, Suzanne Crumeyrolle, Valentin Duflot, Kostas Eleftheriadis, Johan Esveld, Ekaterina Ezhova, Markus Fiebig, Shahzad Gani, Olga Garmash, Francisco Gómez-Moreno, Roy M. Harrison, Andras Hoffer, Rakesh Hooda, Antti Hyvärinen, Tareq Hussein, Jorma Joutsensaari, Nikos Kalivitis, Heinz Kaminski, Jutta Kesti, Radovan Krejci, Adam Kristensson, Chongai Kuang, Markku Kulmala, Lauri Laakso, Ari Leskinen, Heikki Lihavainen, Andreas Massling, Maik Merkel, Steffen Noe, Jakub Ondracek, Noemí Perez, Jean-Eudes Petit, Tuukka Petäjä, Michael Pikridas, Christopher Pöhlker, Mira Pöhlker, Jean-Philippe Putaud, Ximeng Qi, Cristina Reche, Sergio Rodríguez, Petr Roztocil, Jean Sciare, Karine Sellegri, Dongjie Shang, Ashish Singh, Mikko Sipilä, Henrik Skov, Mar Sorribas, Tamanna Subba, Junying Sun, Peter Tunved, Ville Vakkari, Pieter G. Van Zyl, Aki Virkkula, Jens Voigtländer, Kay Weinhold, Alfred Wiedensohler, Hee-Jung Yoo, Putian Zhou, Kai Puolamäki, Tuomo Nieminen, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Victoria A. Sinclair, and Pauli Paasonen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-415,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-415, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD
Short summary
Results and insights from the first ACTRIS intercomparison workshop on sub-10 nm aerosol sizing instrumentation
Herbert G. Hartl, Janne Lampilahti, Rima Baalbaki, Lauri Ahonen, Tommy Chan, Tinghang Zhang, Joonas Vanhanen, Joonas Purén, Gerhard Steiner, Sebastian Schmitt, Torsten Tritscher, Amine Koched, Manuel Granzin, Petr Roztocil, Silja Häme, Tuukka Petäjä, and Katrianne Lehtipalo
Aerosol Research, 4, 133–152, https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-4-133-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/ar-4-133-2026, 2026
Short summary
Measurement report: New particle formation and aerosol properties at a newly founded atmospheric observatory at the Finnish Baltic Sea coast
Maija Peltola, Roseline Thakur, Kurt Spence, Janne Lampilahti, Ronja Mäkelä, Sasu Karttunen, Ekaterina Ezhova, Sami Haapanala, Aki Vähä, Juha Kangasluoma, Tommy Chan, Pauli Paasonen, Joanna Norkko, Alf Norkko, Markku Kulmala, and Mikael Ehn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 489–513, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-489-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-489-2026, 2026
Short summary
Direct calibration using atmospheric particles and performance evaluation of Particle Size Magnifier (PSM) 2.0 for sub-10 nm particle measurements
Yiliang Liu, Arttu Yli-Kujala, Fabian Schmidt-Ott, Sebastian Holm, Lauri Ahonen, Tommy Chan, Joonas Enroth, Joonas Vanhanen, Runlong Cai, Tuukka Petäjä, Markku Kulmala, Yang Chen, and Juha Kangasluoma
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 431–442, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-431-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-431-2025, 2025
Short summary
The effect of COVID-19 restrictions on atmospheric new particle formation in Beijing
Chao Yan, Yicheng Shen, Dominik Stolzenburg, Lubna Dada, Ximeng Qi, Simo Hakala, Anu-Maija Sundström, Yishuo Guo, Antti Lipponen, Tom V. Kokkonen, Jenni Kontkanen, Runlong Cai, Jing Cai, Tommy Chan, Liangduo Chen, Biwu Chu, Chenjuan Deng, Wei Du, Xiaolong Fan, Xu-Cheng He, Juha Kangasluoma, Joni Kujansuu, Mona Kurppa, Chang Li, Yiran Li, Zhuohui Lin, Yiliang Liu, Yuliang Liu, Yiqun Lu, Wei Nie, Jouni Pulliainen, Xiaohui Qiao, Yonghong Wang, Yifan Wen, Ye Wu, Gan Yang, Lei Yao, Rujing Yin, Gen Zhang, Shaojun Zhang, Feixue Zheng, Ying Zhou, Antti Arola, Johanna Tamminen, Pauli Paasonen, Yele Sun, Lin Wang, Neil M. Donahue, Yongchun Liu, Federico Bianchi, Kaspar R. Daellenbach, Douglas R. Worsnop, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Tuukka Petäjä, Aijun Ding, Jingkun Jiang, and Markku Kulmala
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12207–12220, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12207-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12207-2022, 2022
Short summary

Cited articles

Cai, R., Yang, D., Fu, Y., Wang, X., Li, X., Ma, Y., Hao, J., Zheng, J., and Jiang, J.: Aerosol surface area concentration: a governing factor in new particle formation in Beijing, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 12327–12340, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12327-2017, 2017. 
Cai, R., Yang, D., Ahonen, L. R., Shi, L., Korhonen, F., Ma, Y., Hao, J., Petäjä, T., Zheng, J., Kangasluoma, J., and Jiang, J.: Data inversion methods to determine sub-3 nm aerosol size distributions using the particle size magnifier, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4477–4491, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4477-2018, 2018. 
Cai, R., Jiang, J., Mirme, S., and Kangasluoma, J.: Parameters governing the performance of electrical mobility spectrometers for measuring sub-3 nm particles, J. Aerosol Sci., 127, 102–115, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaerosci.2018.11.002, 2019. 
Carbone, F., Attoui, M., and Gomez, A.: Challenges of measuring nascent soot in flames as evidenced by high-resolution differential mobility analysis, Aerosol Sci. Tech., 50, 740–757, https://doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2016.1179715, 2016. 
Download
Short summary
Using a particle size magnifier (PSM; Airmodus, Finland), we determined the particle size distribution using four inversion methods and compared each method to the others to establish their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, we provided a step-by-step procedure on how to invert measured data using the PSM. Finally, we provided recommendations, code and data related to the data inversion. This is an important paper, as no operating procedure exists regarding how to process measured PSM data.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint