Characterizing the performance of a POPS miniaturized optical particle counter when operated on a quadcopter drone

We first validate the performance of the Portable Optical Particle Spectrometer (POPS), a small light-weight and high sensitivity optical particle counter, against a reference scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) for a month-long deployment in an environment dominated by biomass burning aerosols....

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Main Authors: Liu, Zixia, Osborne, Martin, Anderson, Karen, Shutler, Jamie D., Wilson, Andy, Langridge, Justin, Yim, Steve Hung Lam, Coe, Huge, Babu, Suresh, Satheesh, Sreedharan K., Zuidema, Paquita, Huang, Tao, Cheng, Jack C. H., Haywood, James
Other Authors: Asian School of the Environment
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/153604
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1536042023-02-28T16:41:46Z Characterizing the performance of a POPS miniaturized optical particle counter when operated on a quadcopter drone Liu, Zixia Osborne, Martin Anderson, Karen Shutler, Jamie D. Wilson, Andy Langridge, Justin Yim, Steve Hung Lam Coe, Huge Babu, Suresh Satheesh, Sreedharan K. Zuidema, Paquita Huang, Tao Cheng, Jack C. H. Haywood, James Asian School of the Environment Science::Geology Southeast Atlantic Air-Quality We first validate the performance of the Portable Optical Particle Spectrometer (POPS), a small light-weight and high sensitivity optical particle counter, against a reference scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) for a month-long deployment in an environment dominated by biomass burning aerosols. Subsequently, we examine any biases introduced by operating the POPS on a quadcopter drone, a DJI Matrice 200 V2. We report the root mean square difference (RMSD) and mean absolute difference (MAD) in particle number concentrations (PNCs) when mounted on the UAV and operating on the ground and when hovering at 10m. When wind speeds are low (less than 2.6ms-1), we find only modest differences in the RMSDs and MADs of 5% and 3% when operating at 10m altitude. When wind speeds are between 2.6 and 7.7ms-1 the RMSDs and MADs increase to 26.2% and 19.1%, respectively, when operating at 10m altitude. No statistical difference in PNCs was detected when operating on the UAV in either ascent or descent. We also find size distributions of aerosols in the accumulation mode (defined by diameter, d, where 0.1≤d≤1μm) are relatively consistent between measurements at the surface and measurements at 10m altitude, while differences in the coarse mode (here defined by d> 1μm) are universally larger. Our results suggest that the impact of the UAV rotors on the POPS PNCs are small at low wind speeds, but when operating under a higher wind speed of up to 7.6ms-1, larger discrepancies occur. In addition, it appears that the POPS measures sub-micron aerosol particles more accurately than super-micron aerosol particles when airborne on the UAV. These measurements lay the foundations for determining the magnitude of potential errors that might be introduced into measured aerosol particle size distributions and concentrations owing to the turbulence created by the rotors on the UAV. Published version This research has been supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) SWAAMI (grant no. NE/L013886/1) and CLARIFY-2017 Large Grant (grant no. NE/L013584/1), the University of Exeter (grant no. NE/L013878/1), and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (grant no. NE/L013878/1). 2021-12-14T07:30:21Z 2021-12-14T07:30:21Z 2021 Journal Article Liu, Z., Osborne, M., Anderson, K., Shutler, J. D., Wilson, A., Langridge, J., Yim, S. H. L., Coe, H., Babu, S., Satheesh, S. K., Zuidema, P., Huang, T., Cheng, J. C. H. & Haywood, J. (2021). Characterizing the performance of a POPS miniaturized optical particle counter when operated on a quadcopter drone. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 14(9), 6101-6118. https://dx.doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6101-2021 1867-1381 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/153604 10.5194/amt-14-6101-2021 2-s2.0-85115294704 9 14 6101 6118 en Atmospheric Measurement Techniques © 2021 Author(s). This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Science::Geology
Southeast Atlantic
Air-Quality
spellingShingle Science::Geology
Southeast Atlantic
Air-Quality
Liu, Zixia
Osborne, Martin
Anderson, Karen
Shutler, Jamie D.
Wilson, Andy
Langridge, Justin
Yim, Steve Hung Lam
Coe, Huge
Babu, Suresh
Satheesh, Sreedharan K.
Zuidema, Paquita
Huang, Tao
Cheng, Jack C. H.
Haywood, James
Characterizing the performance of a POPS miniaturized optical particle counter when operated on a quadcopter drone
description We first validate the performance of the Portable Optical Particle Spectrometer (POPS), a small light-weight and high sensitivity optical particle counter, against a reference scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) for a month-long deployment in an environment dominated by biomass burning aerosols. Subsequently, we examine any biases introduced by operating the POPS on a quadcopter drone, a DJI Matrice 200 V2. We report the root mean square difference (RMSD) and mean absolute difference (MAD) in particle number concentrations (PNCs) when mounted on the UAV and operating on the ground and when hovering at 10m. When wind speeds are low (less than 2.6ms-1), we find only modest differences in the RMSDs and MADs of 5% and 3% when operating at 10m altitude. When wind speeds are between 2.6 and 7.7ms-1 the RMSDs and MADs increase to 26.2% and 19.1%, respectively, when operating at 10m altitude. No statistical difference in PNCs was detected when operating on the UAV in either ascent or descent. We also find size distributions of aerosols in the accumulation mode (defined by diameter, d, where 0.1≤d≤1μm) are relatively consistent between measurements at the surface and measurements at 10m altitude, while differences in the coarse mode (here defined by d> 1μm) are universally larger. Our results suggest that the impact of the UAV rotors on the POPS PNCs are small at low wind speeds, but when operating under a higher wind speed of up to 7.6ms-1, larger discrepancies occur. In addition, it appears that the POPS measures sub-micron aerosol particles more accurately than super-micron aerosol particles when airborne on the UAV. These measurements lay the foundations for determining the magnitude of potential errors that might be introduced into measured aerosol particle size distributions and concentrations owing to the turbulence created by the rotors on the UAV.
author2 Asian School of the Environment
author_facet Asian School of the Environment
Liu, Zixia
Osborne, Martin
Anderson, Karen
Shutler, Jamie D.
Wilson, Andy
Langridge, Justin
Yim, Steve Hung Lam
Coe, Huge
Babu, Suresh
Satheesh, Sreedharan K.
Zuidema, Paquita
Huang, Tao
Cheng, Jack C. H.
Haywood, James
format Article
author Liu, Zixia
Osborne, Martin
Anderson, Karen
Shutler, Jamie D.
Wilson, Andy
Langridge, Justin
Yim, Steve Hung Lam
Coe, Huge
Babu, Suresh
Satheesh, Sreedharan K.
Zuidema, Paquita
Huang, Tao
Cheng, Jack C. H.
Haywood, James
author_sort Liu, Zixia
title Characterizing the performance of a POPS miniaturized optical particle counter when operated on a quadcopter drone
title_short Characterizing the performance of a POPS miniaturized optical particle counter when operated on a quadcopter drone
title_full Characterizing the performance of a POPS miniaturized optical particle counter when operated on a quadcopter drone
title_fullStr Characterizing the performance of a POPS miniaturized optical particle counter when operated on a quadcopter drone
title_full_unstemmed Characterizing the performance of a POPS miniaturized optical particle counter when operated on a quadcopter drone
title_sort characterizing the performance of a pops miniaturized optical particle counter when operated on a quadcopter drone
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/153604
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