Aerosol 3D Profiling Using Compact Particle Measuring Instruments with Balloon and Drone System

Aerosol profiling using compact mobile instrument is becoming important for the study of global climate changes, new particle formation, and public health. Manned airplane measurement has been one of the best methods to understand the particles in the high altitude. However, this airplane experiment costs a lot and has some limitations, i.e., no-fly zones, bad weather conditions, low altitude flight limitation, and so on. To overcome some of these limitations, new particle measurement methods have been developed using balloon and drones with miniaturized particle counters. During this research, a light weight optical particle counter (Hy-OPC) with less than 300 g and a compact condensation particle counter (Hy-CPC) with 3.5 nm cut-off size have been developed. These instruments can be operated at low pressure and temperature (-25°C) conditions. A handheld scanning mobility particle sizer (Hy-SMPS) with soft X-ray has also been developed for the new particle formation study with drone and balloon. With these particle instruments, temperature, pressure, GPS, and wind speed and direction sensors are added in the package. A communication system and ground control stations has also been developed. ... mehrUsing these compact instrument package, the aerosol and wind vertical distribution profile has been measured with tethered balloon ( 2 km a.g.l.), sounding balloon ( 8 km a.g.l.), and drones (2.5 km a.g.l.). Some of the particle flux distribution and the new particle formation vertical profile measurement result with Hy-SMPS will be presented.