Articles | Volume 14, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6101-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6101-2021
Research article
 | 
16 Sep 2021
Research article |  | 16 Sep 2021

Characterizing the performance of a POPS miniaturized optical particle counter when operated on a quadcopter drone

Zixia Liu, Martin Osborne, Karen Anderson, Jamie D. Shutler, Andy Wilson, Justin Langridge, Steve H. L. Yim, Hugh Coe, Suresh Babu, Sreedharan K. Satheesh, Paquita Zuidema, Tao Huang, Jack C. H. Cheng, and James Haywood

Related authors

Physical and chemical properties of black carbon and organic matter from different combustion and photochemical sources using aerodynamic aerosol classification
Dawei Hu, M. Rami Alfarra, Kate Szpek, Justin M. Langridge, Michael I. Cotterell, Claire Belcher, Ian Rule, Zixia Liu, Chenjie Yu, Yunqi Shao, Aristeidis Voliotis, Mao Du, Brett Smith, Greg Smallwood, Prem Lobo, Dantong Liu, Jim M. Haywood, Hugh Coe, and James D. Allan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16161–16182, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16161-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16161-2021, 2021
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Aerosols | Technique: In Situ Measurement | Topic: Instruments and Platforms
Characterisation of particle single-scattering albedo with a modified airborne dual-wavelength CAPS monitor
Chenjie Yu, Edouard Pangui, Kevin Tu, Mathieu Cazaunau, Maxime Feingesicht, Landsheere Xavier, Thierry Bourrianne, Vincent Michoud, Christopher Cantrell, Timothy B. Onasch, Andrew Freedman, and Paola Formenti
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3419–3437, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3419-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3419-2024, 2024
Short summary
Use of an uncrewed aerial system to investigate aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcing effects in the marine atmosphere
Patricia K. Quinn, Timothy S. Bates, Derek J. Coffman, James E. Johnson, and Lucia M. Upchurch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3157–3170, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3157-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3157-2024, 2024
Short summary
Characterization of the airborne aerosol inlet and transport system used during the A-LIFE aircraft field experiment
Manuel Schöberl, Maximilian Dollner, Josef Gasteiger, Petra Seibert, Anne Tipka, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2761–2776, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2761-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2761-2024, 2024
Short summary
Large-scale automated emission measurement of individual vehicles with point sampling
Markus Knoll, Martin Penz, Hannes Juchem, Christina Schmidt, Denis Pöhler, and Alexander Bergmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2481–2505, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2481-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2481-2024, 2024
Short summary
Development of a cascade impactor optimized for size-fractionated analysis of aerosol metal content by total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (TXRF)
Claudio Crazzolara and Andreas Held
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2183–2194, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2183-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2183-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Ahn, K.-H.: Aerosol 3D Profiling Using Compact Particle Measuring Instruments with Balloon and Drone System, in: 7th International Symposium on Ultrafine Particles, Air Quality and Climate, 15–16 May 2019, Brüssel, Belgium, 2019. 
Atkinson, D. B., Radney, J. G., Lum, J., Kolesar, K. R., Cziczo, D. J., Pekour, M. S., Zhang, Q., Setyan, A., Zelenyuk, A., and Cappa, C. D.: Aerosol optical hygroscopicity measurements during the 2010 CARES campaign, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 4045–4061, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-4045-2015, 2015. 
Atkinson, D. B., Pekour, M., Chand, D., Radney, J. G., Kolesar, K. R., Zhang, Q., Setyan, A., O'Neill, N. T., and Cappa, C. D.: Using spectral methods to obtain particle size information from optical data: applications to measurements from CARES 2010, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5499–5514, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5499-2018, 2018. 
Bellouin, N., Boucher, O., Haywood, J., and Reddy, M. S.: Global estimate of aerosol direct radiative forcing from satellite measurements, Nature, 438, 1138–1141, 2005. 
Bezantakos, S., Schmidt-Ott, F., and Biskos, G.: Performance evaluation of the cost-effective and lightweight Alphasense optical particle counter for use onboard unmanned aerial vehicles, Aerosol Sci. Technol., 52, 385–392, 2018. 
Download
Short summary
This paper first validates the performance of an advanced aerosol observation instrument POPS against a reference instrument and examines any biases introduced by operating it on a quadcopter drone. The results show the POPS performs relatively well on the ground. The impact of the UAV rotors on the POPS is small at low wind speeds, but when operating under higher wind speeds, larger discrepancies occur. It appears that the POPS measures sub-micron aerosol particles more accurately on the UAV.