Development of an incoherent broad-band cavity-enhanced aerosol extinction spectrometer and its application to measurement of aerosol optical hygroscopicity

We report on the development of a blue light-emitting-diode-based incoherent broad-band cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (IBBCEAS) instrument for the measurement of the aerosol extinction coefficient at λ = 461 nm. With an effective absorption path length of 2.8 km, an optimum detection limit of 0.05 Mm^-1 (5 × 10^-10 cm^-1) was achieved with an averaging time of 84 s. The baseline drift of the developed spectrometer was about ±0.3 Mm^-1 over 2.5 h (1σ standard deviation). The performance of the system was evaluated with laboratory-generated monodispersed polystyrene latex (PSL) spheres. The retrieved complex refractive index of PSL agreed well with previously reported values. The relative humidity (RH) dependence of the aerosol extinction coefficient was measured using IBBCEAS. The measured extinction enhancement factor values for 200 nm dry ammonium sulphate particles at different RH were in good agreement with the modeled values. Field performance of the aerosol extinction spectrometer was demonstrated at the Hefei Radiation Observatory site.