LOAC: a small aerosol optical counter/sizer for ground-based and balloon measurements of the size distribution and nature of atmospheric particles – Part 2: First results from balloon and unmanned aerial vehicle flights

Jean-Baptiste Renard (1) , François Dulac (2, 3) , Gwenaël Berthet (1) , Thibaut Lurton (1) , Damien Vignelles (1) , Fabrice Jégou (1) , Thierry Tonnelier (4) , Matthieu Jeannot (5) , Benoit Couté (1) , Rony Akiki (4) , Nicolas Verdier (5) , Marc Mallet (6) , François Gensdarmes (7) , Patrick Charpentier (8) , Samuel Mesmin (8) , Vincent Duverger (1) , Jean-Charles Dupont (9) , Thierry Elias (10) , Vincent Crenn (2) , Jean Sciare (2, 3) , Paul Zieger (11) , Matthew Salter (11) , Tjarda Roberts (1) , Jérôme Giacomoni (12) , Matthieu Gobbi (12) , Eric Hamonou (2) , Haraldur Olafsson (13) , Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserova (13) , Claude Camy-Peyret (14) , Christophe Mazel (15) , Thierry Décamps (15) , Martin Piringer (16) , Jérémy Surcin (1) , Daniel Daugeron (1)

1 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
2 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
3 CAE - Chimie Atmosphérique Expérimentale
4 Environnement SA
5 CNES - Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse]
6 LAERO - Laboratoire d'aérologie
7 IRSN/PSN-RES/SCA - Service du Confinement et de l'Aérodispersion des polluants
8 MeteoModem, Ury
9 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)
10 HYGEOS (SARL)
11 Stockholm University
12 Groupe Aerophile
13 University of Iceland [Reykjavik]
14 IPSL - Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace
15 Fly-n-Sense, Mérignac,
16 ZAMG - Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik

In the companion (Part I) paper, we have described and evaluated a new versatile optical particle counter/sizer named LOAC (Light Optical Aerosol Counter), based on scattering measurements at angles of 12 and 60 •. That allows for some typology identification of particles (droplets, carbonaceous, salts, and mineral dust) in addition to size-segregated counting in a large diameter range from 0.2 µm up to possibly more than 100 µm depending on sampling conditions (Renard et al., 2016). Its capabilities overpass those of preceding optical particle counters (OPCs) allowing the characterization of all kind of aerosols from submicronic-sized absorbing carbonaceous particles in polluted air to very coarse particles (> 10–20 µm in diameter) in desert dust plumes or fog and clouds. LOAC's light and compact design allows measurements under all kinds of balloons , on-board unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and at Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 3674 J.-B. Renard et al.: LOAC: a counter/sizer for ground-based and balloon measurements – Part 2 ground level. We illustrate here the first LOAC airborne results obtained from a UAV and a variety of scientific balloons. The UAV was deployed in a peri-urban environment near Bordeaux in France. Balloon operations include (i) tethered balloons deployed in urban environments in Vi-enna (Austria) and Paris (France), (ii) pressurized balloons drifting in the lower troposphere over the western Mediter-ranean (during the Chemistry-Aerosol Mediterranean Experiment – ChArMEx campaigns), (iii) meteorological sounding balloons launched in the western Mediterranean region (ChArMEx) and from Aire-sur-l'Adour in southwestern France (VOLTAIRE-LOAC campaign). More focus is put on measurements performed in the Mediterranean during (ChArMEx) and especially during African dust transport events to illustrate the original capability of balloon-borne LOAC to monitor in situ coarse mineral dust particles. In particular, LOAC has detected unexpected large particles in desert sand plumes.

Keywords: ChArMEx

Domains: Ocean, Atmosphere; Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]

Jean-Baptiste Renard, François Dulac, Gwenaël Berthet, Thibaut Lurton, Damien Vignelles, et al.. LOAC: a small aerosol optical counter/sizer for ground-based and balloon measurements of the size distribution and nature of atmospheric particles – Part 2: First results from balloon and unmanned aerial vehicle flights. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 2016, 9, pp.3673 - 3686. ⟨10.5194/amt-9-3673-2016⟩. ⟨insu-01396192⟩