Aircraft-based Laser ABlation Aerosol MAss spectrometer (ALABAMA)
The ALABAMA is a single particle laser ablation instrument that was developed especially for aircraft operation onboard the new German research aircraft HALO. A novel Z-ToF mass spectrometer developed by TOFWERK allows a compact 19" design, making the instrument suitable for one HALO rack. First laboratory tests were carried out in summer 2008 and first measurements were performed in the VI-ACI project at the AIDA chamber in October 2008. The first aircraft mission (MEGAPOLI) was performed in July 2009. Further laboratory measurements at the ADIA chamber within VI-ACI (October 2009) and BIO-05 (March 2010) followed. Several ground based field measurements investigating the composition of aerosol particles and cloud residuals were conducted since then (HCCT, PRADACS, ACRIDICON-Zugspitze, INUIT). Further aircraft-based missions were FENNEC (BAe146, 2011) and VERDI (Polar 5, 2012). After several modification with the objective to increase detection and ablation rate, ALABAMA was successfully operated on HALO during ML-CIRRUS (March/April 2014). In July 2014 ALABAMA was operated on the Polar 6 out of Resolute, Canada, during NETCARE, and in August 2015 on Polar 5 during THETIS/Baltic Sea 2015. Within the INUIT project, two ground based field campaigns were conducted in 2016 (Cyprus, April) and 2017 (Jungfraujoch, Jan/Feb). In May/June 2017, ALABAMA was operated on the Polar 6 aircraft during the ACLOUD mission (Longyearbyen, Svalbard). After further modifications (new aerodynamic lens, delayed extraction) we operated ALABAMA in August 2018 during the HALO mission CAFE-AFRICA. Further aircraft-based missions (HALO, Polar 5/6) are planned for the coming years.
Selected publications:
Brands, M., M. Kamphus, T. Böttger, J. Schneider, F. Drewnick, A. Roth, J. Curtius, C. Voigt, A. Borbon, M. Beekmann, A. Bourdon, T. Perrin, and S. Borrmann: Characterization of a Newly Developed Aircraft-Based Laser Ablation Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (ALABAMA) and First Field Deployment in Urban Pollution Plumes over Paris During MEGAPOLI 2009, Aerosol Sci. Technol., 45, 46-64, doi: 10.1080/02786826.2010.517813, 2011.
Worringen, A., Kandler, K., Benker, N., Dirsch, T., Mertes, S., Schenk, L., Kästner, U., Frank, F., Nillius, B., Bundke, U., Rose, D., Curtius, J., Kupiszewski, P., Weingartner, E., Vochezer, P., Schneider, J., Schmidt, S., Weinbruch, S., and Ebert, M.: Single-particle characterization of ice-nucleating particles and ice particle residuals sampled by three different techniques, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 4161-4178, doi:10.5194/acp-15-4161-2015, 2015.
Roth, A., Schneider, J., Klimach, T., Mertes, S., van Pinxteren, D., Herrmann, H., and Borrmann, S.: Aerosol properties, source identification, and cloud processing in orographic clouds measured by single particle mass spectrometry on a central European mountain site during HCCT-2010, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 505-524, doi:10.5194/acp-16-505-2016, 2016.
Schmidt, S., Schneider, J., Klimach, T., Mertes, S., Schenk, L. P., Kupiszewski, P., Curtius, J., and Borrmann, S.: Online single particle analysis of ice particle residuals from mountain-top mixed-phase clouds using laboratory derived particle type assignment, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 575-594, doi:10.5194/acp-17-575-2017, 2017.
Voigt, C., U. Schumann, A. Minikin, A. Abdelmonem, A. Afchine, S. Borrmann, M. Boettcher, B. Buchholz, L. Bugliaro, A. Costa, J. Curtius, M. Dollner, A. Dörnbrack, V. Dreiling, V. Ebert, A. Ehrlich, A. Fix, L. Forster, F. Frank, D. Fütterer, A. Giez, K. Graf, J.-U. Grooß, S. Groß, K. Heimerl, B. Heinold, T. Hüneke, E. Järvinen, T. Jurkat, S. Kaufmann, M. Kenntner, M. Klingebiel, T. Klimach, R. Kohl, M. Krämer, T. C. Krisna, A. Luebke, B. Mayer, S. Mertes, S. Molleker, A. Petzold, K. Pfeilsticker, M. Port, M. Rapp, P. Reutter, C. Rolf, D. Rose, D. Sauer, A. Schäfler, R. Schlage, M. Schnaiter, J. Schneider, N. Spelten, P. Spichtinger, P. Stock, A. Walser, R. Weigel, B. Weinzierl, M. Wendisch, F. Werner, H. Wernli, M. Wirth, A. Zahn, H. Ziereis, M. Zöger: ML-CIRRUS - The airborne experiment on natural cirrus and contrail cirrus with the high-altitude long-range research aircraft HALO, Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 98, 271–288, doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00213.1, 2017.
Willis, Megan D., Franziska Köllner, Julia Burkart, Heiko Bozem, Jennie L. Thomas, Johannes Schneider, Amir A. Aliabadi, Peter M. Hoor, Hannes Schulz, Andreas B. Herber, W. Richard Leaitch, and Jonathan P.D. Abbatt, Evidence for marine-biogenic influence on summertime Arctic aerosol, Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, doi: 10.1002/2017GL073359, 2017.
Köllner, F., Schneider, J., Willis, M. D., Klimach, T., Helleis, F., Bozem, H., Kunkel, D., Hoor, P., Burkart, J., Leaitch, W. R., Aliabadi, A. A., Abbatt, J. P. D., Herber, A. B., and Borrmann, S.: Particulate trimethylamine in the summertime Canadian high Arctic lower troposphere, Atmos. Chem. Phys.,17, 13747-13766, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2017-505, 2017.
Grawe, S., Augustin-Bauditz, S., Clemen, H.-C., Ebert, M., Eriksen Hammer, S., Lubitz, J., Reicher, N., Rudich, Y., Schneider, J., Staacke, R., Stratmann, F., Welti, A., and Wex, H.: Coal fly ash: linking immersion freezing behavior and physicochemical particle properties, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 13903-13923, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13903-2018, 2018.
Ehrlich, A., Wendisch, M., Lüpkes, C., Buschmann, M., Bozem, H., Chechin, D., Clemen, H.-C., Dupuy, R., Eppers, O., Hartmann, J., Herber, A., Jäkel, E., Järvinen, E., Jourdan, O., Kästner, U., Kliesch, L.-L., Köllner, F., Mech, M., Mertes, S., Neuber, R., Ruiz-Donoso, E., Schnaiter, M., Schneider, J., Stapf, J., and Zanatta, M.: A comprehensive in situ and remote sensing data set from the Arctic CLoud Observations Using airborne measurements during polar Day (ACLOUD) campaign, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 11, 1853–1881, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1853-2019, 2019.
, Airborne survey of trace gases and aerosols over the Southern Baltic Sea: from clean marine boundary layer to shipping corridor effect, Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 72:1, 1-24, DOI: 10.1080/16000889.2019.1695349, 2020.
Acknowledgments:
The development of ALABAMA was funded by the DFG SPP 1294 “HALO”, the Earth System Science Research Centre “Geocycles”, the DFG research unit INUIT (FOR 1525), and by the Max Planck Society.