Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer

Note: Effective August 1, 2018, the Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer is no longer requestable through the NSF Lower Atmosphere Observing Facilities Deployment Pool.

• This is a version of the Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS), with time-of-flight (TOF) capability, built and certified for operation on the NSF/NCAR GV (HIAPER). It is based on the original quadrupole design, but the addition of TOF capability increases the sensitivity and time (hence spatial) resolution and enables characterization of single particles. The basic measurement is size-resolved determination of the chemical composition of sub-micrometer non-refractory particles with spatial resolution typically less than 1 km.
• The following diagram illustrates how the TOF capability is incorporated into the AMS:
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• As flown on the DC8 in DC3, the configuration is as shown in the following figure:
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