Articles | Volume 14, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3195-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3195-2021
Research article
 | 
30 Apr 2021
Research article |  | 30 Apr 2021

Intercomparison and characterization of 23 Aethalometers under laboratory and ambient air conditions: procedures and unit-to-unit variabilities

Andrea Cuesta-Mosquera, Griša Močnik, Luka Drinovec, Thomas Müller, Sascha Pfeifer, María Cruz Minguillón, Björn Briel, Paul Buckley, Vadimas Dudoitis, Javier Fernández-García, María Fernández-Amado, Joel Ferreira De Brito, Veronique Riffault, Harald Flentje, Eimear Heffernan, Nikolaos Kalivitis, Athina-Cerise Kalogridis, Hannes Keernik, Luminita Marmureanu, Krista Luoma, Angela Marinoni, Michael Pikridas, Gerhard Schauer, Norbert Serfozo, Henri Servomaa, Gloria Titos, Jesús Yus-Díez, Natalia Zioła, and Alfred Wiedensohler

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Cited articles

Ajtai, T., Kiss-Albert, G., Utry, N., Tóth, A., Hoffer, A., Szabó, G., and Bozóki, Z.: Diurnal variation of aethalometer correction factors and optical absorption assessment of nucleation events using multi-wavelength photoacoustic spectroscopy, J. Environ. Sci., 83, 96–109, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2019.01.022, 2019. 
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Short summary
Measurements of black carbon must be conducted with instruments operating in quality-checked and assured conditions to generate reliable and comparable data. Here, 23 Aethalometers monitoring black carbon mass concentrations in European networks were characterized and intercompared. The influence of different aerosol sources, maintenance activities, and the filter material on the instrumental variabilities were investigated. Good agreement and in general low deviations were seen.