Model calculations and error analysis of the dual wavelength aerosol spectrometer

• Published in: Journal of aerosol science 2003-05, Vol.34 (5), p.653-653
• Main Authors: Nagy, A, Szymanski, W W, Czitrovszky, A, Jani, P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0021-8502

In a previous study, we have introduced a new method for the simultaneous measurement of aerosol particle size and complex refractive index. This method (named Dual Wavelength Optical Particle Spectrometer) applies two illumination laser sources having different wavelengths and four angular ranges for scattered light detection. In this contribution, we present the results of the model calculations and the comprehensive error analysis of the method. The simulation method is the following: we calculate the responses of the four detectors for a given particle, and then apply the data evaluation method to these values. As a result we obtain the size and the complex refractive index of the particle. By applying plus or minus 10% uncertainty to the detector signals we are able to take into account the effect of the optical and electronic noises. To perform a comprehensive error analysis, we generated randomly particles in the given size and complex refractive index ranges and compared the simulated parameters with the original ones. These calculations showed that with 98% and 90% probability, the absolute error in size measure is less than 0.5 mu m in the ideal and the noisy cases, respectively. In the sub micron size range the absolute error the size measure is less than 0.05 mu m with 98% probability in both cases.