Detailed characterization of the CAPS single scattering albedo monitor (CAPS PMssa) as a field-deployable instrument for measuring aerosol light absorption with the extinction-minus-scattering method

Abstract. The CAPS PMssa monitor is a recently commercialized instrument designed to measure aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA) with high accuracy (Onasch et al., 2015). The underlying extinction and scattering coefficient measurements made by the instrument also allow calculation of aerosol absorption coefficients via the extinction-minus-scattering (EMS) method. Care must be taken with EMS measurements due to the occurrence of large subtractive error amplification, especially for the predominantly scattering aerosols that are typically found in the ambient atmosphere. Practically this means that although the CAPS PMssa can measure scattering and extinction coefficients with high accuracy (errors on the order of 1–10 %), the corresponding errors in EMS-derived absorption range from ~ 10 % to greater than 100 %. Therefore, we examine the individual error sources in detail with the goal of constraining these as tightly as possible. Our main focus is on the correction of the scattered light truncation effect (i.e., accounting for the near-forward and -backward scattered light that is undetectable by the instrument), which we show to be the main source of underlying error in atmospheric applications. We introduce a new, modular framework for performing the truncation correction calculation that enables the consideration of additional physical processes such as reflection from the instrument’s glass sampling tube, which was neglected in an earlier truncation model. We validate the truncation calculations against comprehensive laboratory measurements. It is demonstrated that the process of glass tube reflection must be considered in the truncation calculation, but that uncertainty still remains regarding the effective length of the optical cavity. Another important source of uncertainty is the cross calibration constant that quantitatively links the scattering coefficient measured by the instrument to its extinction coefficient. We present measurements of this constant over a period of ~ 5 months that demonstrate that the uncertainty in this parameter is very well constrained for some instrument units (2–3 %), but higher for others. We then use two example field datasets to demonstrate and summarize the potential and the limitations of using the CAPS PMssa for measuring absorption. The first example uses mobile measurements on a highway road to highlight the excellent responsiveness and sensitivity of the instrument, which enables much higher time resolution measurements of relative absorption than is possible with filter-based instruments. The second example from a stationary field site (Cabauw, the Netherlands) demonstrates how truncation-related uncertainties can lead to large biases in EMS-derived absolute absorption coefficients. Nevertheless, we use a subset of fine-mode dominated aerosols from the dataset to show that under certain conditions and despite the remaining truncation uncertainties, the CAPS PMssa can still provide consistent EMS-derived absorption measurements, even for atmospheric aerosols with high SSA. Finally, we present a detailed list of recommendations for future studies that use the CAPS PMssa to measure absorption with the EMS method. These recommendations could also be followed to obtain accurate measurements (i.e., errors less than 5–10 %) of SSA, and scattering and extinction coefficients with the instrument.