Single particle mass spectrometry (SPMS) is a powerful tool to analyse complex aerosol mixtures for the size-resolved number fraction of different particle types. The Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry (PALMS) instrument was used to characterize atmospheric aerosols in ground-based and aircraft-based field campaigns [1, 2, 3]. The instrument was also operated at the cloud simulation chamber AIDA (Aerosol Interactions and Dynamics in the Atmosphere) to analyse both aerosol and ice residual particles [4, 5]. The ice crystals were activated and grown inside the cloud chamber and sampled with a pumped counterflow virtual impactor. Such measurements gain unique insight into the nature of ice-nucleating particles, a very minor number fraction of atmospheric aerosol particles initiating the formation of ice crystals and by that also the formation of precipitation in tropospheric clouds.
More recently, the improved version PALMS-NG (PALMS New Generation) was developed and applied for aircraft-based aerosol measurement in the stratosphere [6]. The instrument is based on a new compact time-of-flight mass spectrometer with s-shaped geometry [7] and has the advantage to simultaneously measure a positive and negative mass spectrum of ions formed by laser ionization of single aerosol particles. Two versions of this instrument are currently built at the University Manchester for aircraft-based measurements and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology for aerosol and cloud research at the new atmospheric simulation chamber AIDAc2 (AIDA “cold and clean”). In this contribution, we will show results from previous AIDA experiments with PALMS, inform about the status of the PALMS-NG construction, and discuss research questions to be addressed with PALMS-NG at AIDAc2.
Literature:
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[3] D. J. Cziczo et al., NGeo 2009, 2, 333, DOI:10.1038/NGEO499
[4] S. Gallavardin et al., Aerosol Sci. Technol. 2008, 42, 773, 10.1080/02786820802339538.
[5] D. J. Cziczo et al., Env. Res. Lett. 2009, 4, 4, DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/044013.
[6] D. M. Murphy et al., PNAS 2023, 120, 43, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2313374120.
[7] D. M. Murphy, J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 2017, 28, 242, DOI: 10.1007/s13361-016-1518-6.
