Articles | Volume 15, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-655-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-655-2022
Research article
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09 Feb 2022
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 09 Feb 2022

Evaluating the PurpleAir monitor as an aerosol light scattering instrument

James R. Ouimette, William C. Malm, Bret A. Schichtel, Patrick J. Sheridan, Elisabeth Andrews, John A. Ogren, and W. Patrick Arnott

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An evaluation of the U.S. EPA's correction equation for PurpleAir sensor data in smoke, dust, and wintertime urban pollution events
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Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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Cited articles

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Anderson, T. L. and Ogren, J. A.: Determining aerosol radiative properties using the TSI 3563 integrating nephelometer, Aerosol Sci. Technol., 29, 57–69, https://doi.org/10.1080/02786829808965551, 1998. 
Anderson, T. L., Covert, D. S., Marshall, S. F., Laucks, M. L., Charlson, R. J., Waggoner, A. P., Ogren, J. A., Caldow, R., Holm, R. L., Quant, F. R., Sem, G. J., Wiedensohler, A., Ahlquist, N. A., and Bates, T. S.: Performance characteristics of a high-sensitivity, three-wavelength, total scatter/backscatter nephelometer, J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol., 13, 967–986, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0426(1996)013<0967:Pcoahs>2.0.Co;2, 1996. 
Arnott, W. P., Walker, J. W., Moosmuller, H., Elleman, R. A., Jonsson, H. H., Buzorius, G., Conant, W. C., Flagan, R. C., and Seinfeld, J. H.: Photoacoustic insight for aerosol light absorption aloft from meteorological aircraft and comparison with particle soot absorption photometer measurements: DOE Southern Great Plains climate research facility and the coastal stratocumulus imposed perturbation experiments, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 111, D05S02, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005jd005964, 2006. 
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We show that the low-cost PurpleAir sensor can be characterized as a cell-reciprocal nephelometer. At two very different locations (Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii and the Table Mountain rural site in Colorado), the PurpleAir measurements are highly correlated with the submicrometer aerosol scattering coefficient measured by a research-grade integrating nephelometer. These results imply that, with care, PurpleAir data may be used to evaluate climate and air quality models.