Real-Time Determination of Absorptivity of Ambient Particles in Urban Aerosol in Budapest, Hungary

Attila Nagy; Aladár Czitrovszky; Attila Kerekes; Miklós Veres; Wladyslaw W. Szymanski

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2015.05.0356

Real-Time Determination of Absorptivity of Ambient Particles in Urban Aerosol in Budapest, Hungary

Aerosol Physics and Instrumentation

Attila Nagy ¹, Aladár Czitrovszky¹, Attila Kerekes¹, Miklós Veres¹, Wladyslaw W. Szymanski²

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¹Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Konkoly Thege M. st. 29-33. H-1121 Budapest, Hungary
²Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria

Received: May 22, 2015
Revised: September 14, 2015
Accepted: November 10, 2015
Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2015.05.0356

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Cite this article:
Nagy, A., Czitrovszky, A., Kerekes, A., Veres, M. and Szymanski, W.W. (2016). Real-Time Determination of Absorptivity of Ambient Particles in Urban Aerosol in Budapest, Hungary. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 16: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2015.05.0356

HIGHLIGHTS

Real-time determination of ambient particles’ absorptivity and size distribution.
Measurement of the absorption properties of urban aerosol with different instruments.
Assessment of light absorption by sub-micrometer particles.
Determination of the absorbing fraction and the refractive index of ambient aerosol.

ABSTRACT

The absorption properties of ambient urban aerosols as well as their size distributions were measured in real-time using a dual wavelength optical particle spectrometer (DWOPS). A photoacoustic spectrometer (PAS) was simultaneously used to directly measure light absorptivity of the particles in question along with an Aethalometer and a commercial optical particle counter (OPC). The sizing performance of the DWOPS was compared with the commercial OPC unit showing very good agreement. The data from DWOPS, PAS and Aethalometer instruments are presented and show the potential of the DWOPS technique for a direct and simple assessment of the absorbing part of the complex refractive index of ambient particles as a function of particle size.

Keywords: Atmospheric particles; Light absorption; Refractive index; Soot aerosol