Articles | Volume 17, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6945-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6945-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
11 Dec 2024
Research article |
| 11 Dec 2024
| 11 Dec 2024
Merging holography, fluorescence, and machine learning for in situ continuous characterization and classification of airborne microplastics
Faculty of Physics, Aerosol Physics and Environmental Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
now at: Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV, USA
Julia Burkart
Faculty of Physics, Aerosol Physics and Environmental Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
now at: Sonnblick Observatory, Geosphere Austria, Vienna, Austria
Elias Graf
Swisens AG, Emmen, Switzerland
Yanick Zeder
Swisens AG, Emmen, Switzerland
Lea Ann Dailey
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Bernadett Weinzierl
Faculty of Physics, Aerosol Physics and Environmental Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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David Mateos, Carlos Toledano, Abel Calle, Roberto Román, Marcos Herreras-Giralda, Ramiro González, Sara Herrero-Anta, Daniel González-Fernández, Celia Herrero-del Barrio, Argyro Nisantzi, Silke Gross, Victoria E. Cachorro, Ángel M. de Frutos, and Bernadett Weinzierl
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3577, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3577, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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The A-LIFE experiment deployed in Cyprus included two sun photometers of AERONET network in two different sites. Mineral dust was predominant during the experiment, with Saharan and Arabian dust showing distinct optical properties, in particular, the Angstrom Exponent in the near-infrarred range and Volume Efficiency factor. Both magnitudes can served as a reliable proxy for mineral dust typing. No significant black carbon presence was detected.
Marilena Teri, Josef Gasteiger, Katharina Heimerl, Maximilian Dollner, Manuel Schöberl, Petra Seibert, Anne Tipka, Thomas Müller, Sudharaj Aryasree, Konrad Kandler, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6633–6662, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6633-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6633-2025, 2025
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The A-LIFE aircraft field experiment was carried out in the eastern Mediterranean in 2017. Using A-LIFE data, we studied the change in mineral dust optical properties due to mixing with anthropogenic aerosols. We found that increasing pollution affects dust optical properties, which has implications for identifying dust events and understanding their climate effects. We also show that optical properties of Saharan and Arabian dust are similar when comparing cases with equal pollution content.
Silke Groß, Volker Freudenthaler, Moritz Haarig, Albert Ansmann, Carlos Toledano, David Mateos, Petra Seibert, Rodanthi-Elisavet Mamouri, Argyro Nisantzi, Josef Gasteiger, Maximilian Dollner, Anne Tipka, Manuel Schöberl, Marilena Teri, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3191–3211, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3191-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3191-2025, 2025
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Aerosols contribute to the largest uncertainties in climate change predictions. The eastern Mediterranean is a hotspot for aerosols with natural and anthropogenic contributions. We present lidar measurements performed during A-LIFE (Absorbing aerosol layers in a changing climate: aging, lifetime and dynamics) to characterize aerosols and aerosol mixtures. We extend current lidar classification and separation schemes and compare them to classification schemes using different methods.
Natalie G. Ratcliffe, Claire L. Ryder, Nicolas Bellouin, Stephanie Woodward, Anthony Jones, Ben Johnson, Lisa-Maria Wieland, Maximilian Dollner, Josef Gasteiger, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12161–12181, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12161-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12161-2024, 2024
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Large mineral dust particles are more abundant in the atmosphere than expected and have different impacts on the environment than small particles, which are better represented in climate models. We use aircraft measurements to assess a climate model representation of large-dust transport. We find that the model underestimates the amount of large dust at all stages of transport and that fast removal of the large particles increases this underestimation with distance from the Sahara.
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
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Transporting a representative aerosol sample to instrumentation inside a research aircraft remains a challenge due to losses or enhancements of particles in the aerosol sampling system. Here, we present sampling efficiencies and the cutoff diameter for the DLR Falcon aerosol sampling system as a function of true airspeed by comparing the in-cabin and the out-cabin particle number size distributions observed during the A-LIFE aircraft mission.
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
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In this study, we focus on an automatic bioaerosol measurement instrument and investigate the impact of using its fluorescence measurement for pollen identification. The fluorescence signal is used together with a pair of images from the same instrument to identify single pollen grains via neural networks. We test whether considering fluorescence as a supplementary input improves the pollen identification performance by comparing three different neural networks.
Paulus S. Bauer, Dorian Spät, Martina Eisenhut, Andreas Gattringer, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4445–4460, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4445-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4445-2023, 2023
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Particle number concentration is one of the most important parameters to quantify an aerosol. Aerosol number concentration in the nanometer range is commonly measured with condensation particle counters (CPCs). A CEN technical specification harmonizes the CPC specifications. However, it is not specified for low-pressure conditions as on high mountains or on airplanes. Here, we present the pressure-dependent performance of two different models of CEN CPCs, the Grimm 5410 CEN and the TSI 3772 CEN.
Pamela S. Rickly, Hongyu Guo, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jose L. Jimenez, Glenn M. Wolfe, Ryan Bennett, Ilann Bourgeois, John D. Crounse, Jack E. Dibb, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Maximilian Dollner, Emily M. Gargulinski, Samuel R. Hall, Hannah S. Halliday, Thomas F. Hanisco, Reem A. Hannun, Jin Liao, Richard Moore, Benjamin A. Nault, John B. Nowak, Jeff Peischl, Claire E. Robinson, Thomas Ryerson, Kevin J. Sanchez, Manuel Schöberl, Amber J. Soja, Jason M. St. Clair, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Kirk Ullmann, Paul O. Wennberg, Bernadett Weinzierl, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Edward L. Winstead, and Andrew W. Rollins
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 15603–15620, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15603-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15603-2022, 2022
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Biomass burning sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission factors range from 0.27–1.1 g kg-1 C. Biomass burning SO2 can quickly form sulfate and organosulfur, but these pathways are dependent on liquid water content and pH. Hydroxymethanesulfonate (HMS) appears to be directly emitted from some fire sources but is not the sole contributor to the organosulfur signal. It is shown that HMS and organosulfur chemistry may be an important S(IV) reservoir with the fate dependent on the surrounding conditions.
Marilena Teri, Thomas Müller, Josef Gasteiger, Sara Valentini, Helmuth Horvath, Roberta Vecchi, Paulus Bauer, Adrian Walser, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3161–3187, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3161-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3161-2022, 2022
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We performed an extensive closure study including laboratory and simulated experiments to evaluate various angular corrections for the Aurora 4000 polar nephelometer, focusing on irregularly shaped aerosols such as mineral dust. We describe the impact of particle size, refractive index, and shape on the determination of the particle scattering coefficient and propose a guideline to establish the most appropriate angular correction depending on the aerosol type and the investigated size range.
Charles A. Brock, Karl D. Froyd, Maximilian Dollner, Christina J. Williamson, Gregory Schill, Daniel M. Murphy, Nicholas J. Wagner, Agnieszka Kupc, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Jason C. Schroder, Douglas A. Day, Derek J. Price, Bernadett Weinzierl, Joshua P. Schwarz, Joseph M. Katich, Siyuan Wang, Linghan Zeng, Rodney Weber, Jack Dibb, Eric Scheuer, Glenn S. Diskin, Joshua P. DiGangi, ThaoPaul Bui, Jonathan M. Dean-Day, Chelsea R. Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Ilann Bourgeois, Bruce C. Daube, Róisín Commane, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15023–15063, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15023-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15023-2021, 2021
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The Atmospheric Tomography Mission was an airborne study that mapped the chemical composition of the remote atmosphere. From this, we developed a comprehensive description of aerosol properties that provides a unique, global-scale dataset against which models can be compared. The data show the polluted nature of the remote atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere and quantify the contributions of sea salt, dust, soot, biomass burning particles, and pollution particles to the haziness of the sky.
Christina J. Williamson, Agnieszka Kupc, Andrew Rollins, Jan Kazil, Karl D. Froyd, Eric A. Ray, Daniel M. Murphy, Gregory P. Schill, Jeff Peischl, Chelsea Thompson, Ilann Bourgeois, Thomas B. Ryerson, Glenn S. Diskin, Joshua P. DiGangi, Donald R. Blake, Thao Paul V. Bui, Maximilian Dollner, Bernadett Weinzierl, and Charles A. Brock
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 9065–9088, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9065-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9065-2021, 2021
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Aerosols in the stratosphere influence climate by scattering and absorbing sunlight and through chemical reactions occurring on the particles’ surfaces. We observed more nucleation mode aerosols (small aerosols, with diameters below 12 nm) in the mid- and high-latitude lowermost stratosphere (8–13 km) in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) than in the Southern Hemisphere. The most likely cause of this is aircraft emissions, which are concentrated in the NH at similar altitudes to our observations.
Hongyu Guo, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Douglas A. Day, Jason C. Schroder, Dongwook Kim, Jack E. Dibb, Maximilian Dollner, Bernadett Weinzierl, and Jose L. Jimenez
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3631–3655, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3631-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3631-2021, 2021
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We utilize a set of high-quality datasets collected during the NASA Atmospheric Tomography Mission to investigate the impact of differences in observable particle sizes across aerosol instruments in aerosol measurement comparisons. Very good agreement was found between chemically and physically derived submicron aerosol volume. Results support a lack of significant unknown biases in the response of an Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) when sampling remote aerosols across the globe.
Maria Kezoudi, Matthias Tesche, Helen Smith, Alexandra Tsekeri, Holger Baars, Maximilian Dollner, Víctor Estellés, Johannes Bühl, Bernadett Weinzierl, Zbigniew Ulanowski, Detlef Müller, and Vassilis Amiridis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6781–6797, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6781-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6781-2021, 2021
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Mineral dust concentrations in the diameter range from 0.4 to 14.0 μm were measured with the balloon-borne UCASS optical particle counter. Launches were coordinated with ground-based remote-sensing and airborne in situ measurements during a Saharan dust outbreak over Cyprus. Particle number concentrations reached 50 cm−3 for the diameter range 0.8–13.9 μm. Comparisons with aircraft data show reasonable agreement in magnitude and shape of the particle size distribution.
Agnieszka Kupc, Christina J. Williamson, Anna L. Hodshire, Jan Kazil, Eric Ray, T. Paul Bui, Maximilian Dollner, Karl D. Froyd, Kathryn McKain, Andrew Rollins, Gregory P. Schill, Alexander Thames, Bernadett B. Weinzierl, Jeffrey R. Pierce, and Charles A. Brock
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15037–15060, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15037-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15037-2020, 2020
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Tropical upper troposphere over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is a major source region of new particles. These particles are associated with the outflow from deep convection. We investigate the processes that govern the formation of these particles and their initial growth and show that none of the formation schemes commonly used in global models are consistent with observations. Using newer schemes indicates that organic compounds are likely important as nucleating and initial growth agents.
Christof G. Beer, Johannes Hendricks, Mattia Righi, Bernd Heinold, Ina Tegen, Silke Groß, Daniel Sauer, Adrian Walser, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 4287–4303, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4287-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4287-2020, 2020
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Mineral dust aerosol plays an important role in the climate system. Previously, dust emissions have often been represented in global models by prescribed monthly-mean emission fields representative of a specific year. We now apply an online calculation of wind-driven dust emissions. This results in an improved agreement with observations, due to a better representation of the highly variable dust emissions. Increasing the model resolution led to an additional performance gain.
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Short summary
We tested a method to identify airborne microplastics (MPs), merging imaging, fluorescence, and machine learning of single particles. We examined whether combining imaging and fluorescence data enhances classification accuracy compared to using each method separately and tested these methods with other particle types. The tested MPs have distinct fluorescence, and a combined imaging and fluorescence method improves their detection, making meaningful progress in monitoring MPs in the atmosphere.
We tested a method to identify airborne microplastics (MPs), merging imaging, fluorescence, and...
