A new airborne single particle mass spectrometer: PALMS-NG
Justin Jacquot, Xiaoli Shen, Maya Abou‐Ghanem, K. D. Froyd, Michael J. Lawler, Gregory P. Schill, Kyra Slovacek, D. S. Thomson, Daniel J. Cziczo, Daniel M. Murphy
Abstract
An updated version of the Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry (PALMS) instrument, termed PALMS-NG (-Next Generation), has been designed to characterize particles in the troposphere and stratosphere. Two PALMS-NG instruments have been built: a Purdue University version, which has flown on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ER-2 and DC-8, and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) version, which has flown on the NASA WB-57F. The general design and construction are nearly identical. New features and construction techniques are described here. These include a new inlet, optics for an extended size range of particle measurement, and a unique bipolar s-shape mass spectrometer with higher resolution. These make the -NG instrument a significant improvement over the original flight PALMS which was first flown 25 years ago.Copyright © 2024 American Association for Aerosol Research