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
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
Modular Multiplatform Compatible Air Measurement System (MoMuCAMS): a new modular platform for boundary layer aerosol and trace gas vertical measurements in extreme environments
Roman Pohorsky, Andrea Baccarini, Julie Tolu, Lenny H. E. Winkel, and Julia Schmale
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 731–754, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-731-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-731-2024, 2024
Short summary
Two new multirotor uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) for glaciogenic cloud seeding and aerosol measurements within the CLOUDLAB project
Anna J. Miller, Fabiola Ramelli, Christopher Fuchs, Nadja Omanovic, Robert Spirig, Huiying Zhang, Ulrike Lohmann, Zamin A. Kanji, and Jan Henneberger
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 601–625, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-601-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-601-2024, 2024
Short summary
Real-time pollen identification using holographic imaging and fluorescence measurements
Sophie Erb, Elias Graf, Yanick Zeder, Simone Lionetti, Alexis Berne, Bernard Clot, Gian Lieberherr, Fiona Tummon, Pascal Wullschleger, and Benoît Crouzy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 441–451, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-441-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-441-2024, 2024
Short summary
Assessing potential indicators of aerosol wet scavenging during long-range transport
Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Avelino F. Arellano, Ali Behrangi, Ewan C. Crosbie, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Michael A. Shook, Luke D. Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 37–55, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-37-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-37-2024, 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.