Articles | Volume 13, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6613-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6613-2020
Research article
 | 
07 Dec 2020
Research article |  | 07 Dec 2020

Design and field campaign validation of a multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle and optical particle counter

Joseph Girdwood, Helen Smith, Warren Stanley, Zbigniew Ulanowski, Chris Stopford, Charles Chemel, Konstantinos-Matthaios Doulgeris, David Brus, David Campbell, and Robert Mackenzie

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Short summary
We present the design and validation of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a bespoke optical particle counter (OPC). This is used to monitor atmospheric particles, which have significant effects on our weather and climate. These effects are hard to characterise properly, partly because they occur in regions that are not commonly accessible to traditional instrumentation. Our new platform gives us the capability to access these regions.