Portable device to determine particle asymmetry parameter

TL;DR

This paper introduces a portable device for real-time, contact-free measurement of particle asymmetry parameter g, enabling accurate characterization of aerosols crucial for climate modeling.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel portable light scattering device capable of in situ, rapid measurement of particle phase function, improving accuracy over commercial nephelometers.

Findings

Successfully measured g for various aerosols with high precision.

Demonstrated reduced error compared to commercial nephelometers.

Enabled in situ, real-time aerosol characterization.

Abstract

Accurate characterization of the asymmetry parameter g is of crucial importance for many radiative transfer and climate models. Here, we present our portable light scattering (PLS) device which is designed for in situ, real-time, and contact-free measurements of the particles phase function with an integration time less than 1 second. With the PLS device, we have characterized carbonaceous aerosols, such as smoldering products from Alaskan peat, soot from a kerosene lamp and non-carbonaceous aerosols such as Arizona Road Dust. We found the g to be 0.664+/-0.002, 0.506+/-0.004, and 0.701+/-0.020 for those three kinds of particles, respectively. Compare to commercial nephelometers, our PLS device has reduced error in g due to angular truncation.