Results of the first-ever ACSM intercomparison study from the ACTRIS-ACSM network

V. Crenn (1) , Jean Sciare (1) , Olivier Favez (2) , Philip Croteau (3) , Roman Frohlich (4) , A. Setyan (5) , Stéphane Verlhac (2) , Véronique Riffault (5) , M. Aijala (6) , M. Bressi (7) , C. Carbone (8) , F. Cavalli (7) , E. Coz (9) , M.J. Cubison (10) , J.K. Gietl , Paivi Heikkinen , C. Lunder , M.C. Minguillon (11) , J. Ovadnevaite , E. Petralia , L. Poulain (12) , M. Priestman , A. Ripoll , B. Artinano , Dominique Baisnee , N. Bonnaire (1) , M. Canagaratna (3) , D.C. Green (13) , Grisa Mocnik (14) , V. Gros (1) , Jean-Eudes Petit , Roland Sarda-Esteve (1) , J.T. Jayne (3) , André S.H. Prevot (4)

1 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
2 INERIS - Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques
3 Aerodyne Research Inc.
4 LAC - Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry [Paul Scherrer Institute]
5 CERI EE - IMT Nord Europe - Centre for Energy and Environment
6 Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
7 IES - JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability
8 ISAC - CNR Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate
9 CIEMAT - Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas
10 Tofwerk AG
11 IDAEA - Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research
12 TROPOS - Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research
13 King‘s College London
14 Aerosol D.O.O

As part of the EU-FP7 ACTRIS program, a large international intercomparison study of 15 aerosol mass spectrometers (13 Q-ACSM, 1 ToF-ACSM and 1 HR-ToF-AMS) has been performed from 15 Nov. to 2 Dec. 2013 at the LSCE in-situ atmospheric platform which is part of the French SIRTA observatory (http://sirta.ipsl.fr) located at 20km southwest of Paris. During this period, each instrument measured the major non-refractory submicron aerosols (NR-PM1) components (organic matter, nitrate, sulfate, and ammonium) in ambient air. The accuracy of Q-ACSM instruments was determined by comparison with various co-located instruments (TEOM-FDMS, SMPS, OPC, OC-EC Sunset Field analyzer, PILS-IC, aethalometers, nephelometers, and filter sampling). The measurement precision was also evaluated by intercomparing the correlation of absolute mass concentrations for all the NR-PM1 species. The ACSM analytical uncertainties were then estimated by applying a statistical approach in order to evaluate the analytical standard deviations between ACSMs and to highlight any bias or influencing factor on the ACSM measurements. For this purpose, the Z-score indicator representing performance criteria was used making it possible to measure its relative deviation to the assigned value. Fig. 1 summarizes the Z-Score results applied to the 13 Q-ACSM datasets for the major chemical species of the NR-PM1. All the ACSMs present satisfactory Z-Score values (a Z-Score value of 3 is considered as the limit value) whatever the considered parameter highlighting the instrument precision.

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement

V. Crenn, Jean Sciare, Olivier Favez, Philip Croteau, Roman Frohlich, et al.. Results of the first-ever ACSM intercomparison study from the ACTRIS-ACSM network. 4. ACTRIS General Meeting, Jun 2014, Clermont-Ferrand, France. ⟨ineris-01855515⟩