Description: Atmospheric aerosol impair efforts to retrieve information regarding the Earth’s surface, including oceans and have important impacts on climate and air quality. Airborne measurements of aerosol size are critical to understanding physical drivers over time and space, and to validate satellite and other remotely sensed observations. The current state of the art instrument for measuring aerosol size on aircraft is now almost 50 years old, difficult to maintain, and at risk of causing gaps in this vital measurement. We propose development of a next-generation aerosol probe that realizes a modernized implementation of integrated side scattering for accurate sizing of submicron particles. The project goal is to provide an aircraft-ready, life-cycle supported instrument capable of serving aerosol measurement requirements for the next decade, integrating modern flow control, electronics, and data processing/output capabilities.

Benefits: The airborne probe would be core measurement instrumentation for suborbital aircraft campaigns examining air quality, climate, and aircraft emissions, and satellite validation. Specific missions with relevance include PACE Satellite mission (ocean biology, aerosols, clouds), the upcoming ACCP Mission (aerosols, clouds, convection, precipitation), TEMPO (geostationary air quality observations), and CAMP2Ex (tropical meteorology and aerosol science).

A next-generation aerosol sizing probe would be a core component on research aircraft operated by other US and non-US agencies, including DOE, NCAR, NOAA, DLR (Germany), FAAM (UK), and SAFIRE (France). The optical technology at the core of the probe could be adapted for ground/laboratory use, opening more applications: air quality monitoring, clean room monitoring, and academic aerosol research.