Operational Status:
requestable, ready for deployment
General Description:
- PCASP is a wing-mounted aerosol probe that uses a standard PMS canister. Air sample enters the forward-facing inlet and decelerates by ~10x. Side-facing skarf tube provides suction for continuous flushing of the air to provide fast time response.
- During cloud penetrations, the splash-breakup of cloud particles can produce large concentrations of spurious particles, and some of these can enter the PCASP air sample as a contamination. Internal diagphragm pump drives air flow through the optical cavity. Sample rate is 1 cc/sec within a particle-free sheath flow of 15 cc/sec.
Measurement Characteristics:
- sample air throughput 1 cc/sec
- Overall estimate of uncertainty:
- Response time: 10 sps
- Precision: 30 ch, progressive bin width; 0.02 um resolution in smallest channels
- Other measurement characteristics: splash artifact contamination in clouds;