Intercomparison of 15 aerodynamic particle size spectrometers (APS 3321):  uncertainties in particle sizing and number size distribution

Pfeifer, Sascha; Müller, Thomas; Weinhold, Kay; Zikova, Nadezda; Martins dos Santos, Sebastiao; Marinoni, Angela; Bischof, Oliver F.; Kykal, Carsten; Ries, Ludwig; Meinhardt, Frank; Aalto, Pasi; Mihalopoulos, Nikolaos; Wiedensohler, Alfred

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1545-2016

Articles | Volume 9, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1545-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1545-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 4

Research article

|

07 Apr 2016

Research article |

| 07 Apr 2016

Intercomparison of 15 aerodynamic particle size spectrometers (APS 3321): uncertainties in particle sizing and number size distribution

Sascha Pfeifer, Thomas Müller, Kay Weinhold, Nadezda Zikova, Sebastiao Martins dos Santos, Angela Marinoni, Oliver F. Bischof, Carsten Kykal, Ludwig Ries, Frank Meinhardt, Pasi Aalto, Nikolaos Mihalopoulos, and Alfred Wiedensohler

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Final revised paper (published on 07 Apr 2016)
Preprint (discussion started on 03 Nov 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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SC C3940: 'Two comments', G. Kulkarni, 18 Nov 2015
- AC C3986: 'reply to the comments', Sascha Pfeifer, 20 Nov 2015
RC C4181: 'referee review of amt-2015-271 submitted 3 Nov 2015', Anonymous Referee #2, 02 Dec 2015
- AC C4394: 'Author’s reply to Anonymous Referee #2', Sascha Pfeifer, 18 Dec 2015
RC C5491: 'Review of "Intercomparison of 15 Aerodynamic Particle Size Spectrometers (APS 3321): Uncertainties in Particle Sizing and Number Size Distribution"', Anonymous Referee #3, 12 Feb 2016
- AC C5519: 'Author’s reply to Anonymous Referee #3', Sascha Pfeifer, 23 Feb 2016

Short summary

15 aerodynamic particle size spectrometers (APS model 3321, TSI Inc., St. Paul, MN, USA) were compared with a focus on flow rates accuracy, particle sizing, and unit-to-unit variability of the particle number size distribution. Flow rate deviations were relatively small, while the sizing accuracy was found to be within 10 % compared to polystyrene latex reference particles. The unit-to-unit variability in terms of the particle number size distribution during this study was between 10 % and 60 %.