Rescue of retrospective aerosol measurements:
Rescue of retrospective
aerosol measurements:
a challenge for Estonian
Environmental Observatory
a challenge for Estonian Environmental Observatory
hannes.tammet@ut.ee
Järvselja 20150615
A charged aerosol particle drifting in electric field:
Particle
Velocity
Mobility
+
Z = electric mobility
v=ZE
v
E

Electric field
E
Common
unit
cm / s
 cm 2 V 1s 1
V / cm
Charged aerosol particle = air ion
Air ions have been measured in Tartu since 1937
Diameter and mobility of
a singly charged aerosol particle
small
ions
1
Mobility : cm2V-1s -1
0.1
particles
0.01
0.001
0.0001
0.00001
0.000001
1
10
100
Diameter, nm
1000
10000
Probability to be neutral or
carry few elementary charges
1
0 e (neutral)
0.8
Probability
1 e (singly charged)
0.6
2e
0.4
3e
0.2
0
1
10
100
Diameter, nm
1000
10000
Number of elementary charges is to be multiplied
with this coefficient to get total number of particles
Particles / charges
100
10
1
0.1
1
10
100
Diameter, nm
1000
10000
Some papers by Giles Harrison:
Harrison R.G. and Aplin K.L. (2002) Aerosol variations inferred from
historical atmospheric electrical data. Proc. XIIIth Annual Conference
The Aerosol Society, Lancaster, April 2002, 113-116.
Harrison R.G. (2003) Climate change and long-term variations in the
atmospheric electrical system. Proc.12th International Conference on
Atmospheric Electricity, Versailles, vol2, 703-706, 2003.
Harrison R.G. (2003) Long-term changes in aerosol and the electrical
conductivity of oceanic air. Proc. 14th annual conference, The Aerosol
Society, Reading, 2nd-3rd April 2003, 22-25.
Harrison R.G. and Aplin K.L. (2002) Mid-nineteenth century diurnal
smoke concentrations at Kew, London. Atmos Environ 36, 25 40374043.
Harrison R.G. and Aplin K.L. (2003) Nineteenth century Parisian smoke
variations inferred from Eiffel Tower atmospheric electrical observations.
Atmos Environ 37, 5319-5324.
Original instruments
and early measurements in Tartu:
Jaan Reinet 1951—1955
(Arnold Susi, Hugo Marran)
Paul Prüller 1960—1963
(Olev Saks)
Tahkuse
Tahkuse Air Monitoring Station is located about 27 km from Pärnu. The routine
measurements at Tahkuse are carried out by Hilja Iher since 1985.
Preliminary measurements
were made here at 1984
Tahkuse 1985–1994:
Tahkuse air ion spectrometer
The full range
spectrometer
was launched at
Tahkuse 1988.
The air ions are
measured using
20 simultaneous
electrometric
amplifiers.
Additional
commutation of
voltages yields
concentrations
of 40 fractions in
the size range
of 0.4 – 80 nm.
Tahkuse 2007:
EAS = Electrical Aerosol Spectrometer
The project EAS was started in seventies.
Technically perfect instruments were designed by
Aadu Mirme in eighties. Today improved versions of
EAS are manufactured by a small company AIREL.
The technological solutions achieved during
developing the EAS were subsequently used by
Aadu Mirme in contemporary universal aerosol and
air ion mobility spectrometers NAIS and ANAIS.
EAS & NAIS are widely used and well known for
everybody who is active in atmospheric aerosol
research today.
EAS = Electrical Aerosol Spectrometer
BSMA
EAS
EAS
Measurements by EAS and air ion spectrometer
dn / d (ln d ) : cm-3
10000
1000
EAS, April
EAS, May
Ion spectrometer, April
Ion spectrometer, May
100
1
10
100
Particle diameter : nm
1000
Source: Hõrrak, U., Mirme, A., Salm, J., Tamm, E., and Tammet, H. (1998) Air ion measurements
as a source of information about atmospheric aerosols. Atmos. Res. 46, 233–242.
Tartu, Tähe 4, measurements of finest nanometer particles
Location & instrument
Some saved data
according to Kaupo Komsaare
Waldorf (USA) + Vilsandi (EST)
Years
1979
Formats
punched tape
Tahkuse AIS + meteo
1988–2002
txtraw
Tahkuse NO2 + meteo
1991–2015
txt
Tahkuse AIS + meteo
2003–2015
txt, sum
Tahkuse EAS
2003–2015
nc, ncs, vc, vcs, sig, txt
Tahkuse weather observations
2003–2015
paper
Tahkuse reports
2003–2015
xls
Tahkuse RM2-B (Rn)
2004, 2007
xls, paper
Tahkuse AlphaGuard + meteo
2007–2015
dvd, txt
Tahkuse Vaisala meteo
2006–2015
txt
Tahkuse BSMA
2011
txt
Tahkuse NAIS
2011–2015
txt, sum
Tõravere EAS
2007–2013
nc, ncs, vc, vcs, sig, txt
Järvselja KAIS
2009
Järvselja BSMA
2008–2009
txt
Järvselja EAS
2012–2015
block-spectra, sum
Järvselja NAIS
2012–2015
block-spectra, sum
Tartu BSMA
2004–2014
txt
Tartu KAIS
2006–2014
txt
Tartu RM2-B (Rn)
2007–2008
?
Tartu NAIS
2011–2012
block-spectra
Tartu SIGMA
2011–2014
txt
2014
txt
Tartu TSI SMPS
txt, xls
The DataCite global consortium
(https://www.datacite.org) supports archiving of
research data and helps to assign to datasets
digital object identifiers (DOI).
This opportunity is now used uploading
few datasets to a safe repository and
making the data openly accessible.
Dataset ATMEL2007A
Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.15155/repo-1
The dataset provides scientists and students with a collection of data for exploring the correlations
and trends in fair-weather atmospheric electricity, air pollution effects, and trends in global climate
(Tammet, 2009). It includes hourly averages of digitally available data from 13 stations including 7
stations of the former World Data Centre network. Additional stations are Wank Peak (Germany),
Marsta (Sweden), Tahkuse (Estonia), Tartu (Estonia), Hyytiälä (Finland), and Carnegie research ship.
The atmospheric electric measurements are accompanied with meteorological and air pollution data.
The total amount of included hourly average values is about 12,000,000. New data can easily be
imported into the dataset and the excerpts of the data can be exported as traditional tables using the
included free software. Introductory presentation of the dataset is available in the included pdfdocuments:
 Introduction to the ATMEL2007A.
 Motivation of the dataset ATMEL2007A.
 Sources of ATMEL2007A data.
 Explanation of data formats in ATMEL2007A.
 Brief overview of the ATMEL2007A data.
 Tools for data management in ATMEL2007A.
 Manual of ATMEL2007tablemaker.
References
Dolezalek, H. (1992). The World Data Centre on atmospheric electricity and global change
monitoring, Eur. Sci. Notes Inform. Bull., 92-02, 1–32.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a249486.pdf.
Tammet, H. (2009). A joint dataset of fair-weather atmospheric electricity. Atmos. Res., 91, 194–200.
http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2008.01.012.
Dataset Nanoion2010_11
Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.15155/repo-2
The positive and negative small and intermediate air ions were routinely measured at Tartu, Estonia (58.373 N, 26.727 E, 70 m
a.s.l.) by means of a unique instrument SIGMA (Tammet, 2011). The dataset includes results of a measurement campaign started
at 1 April 2010 and finished at 8 November 2011. The dataset presents unique information about nanoparticles up to 7.4 nm in
diameter in the atmospheric air (Tammet et al., 2013, 2014). The genesis and subsequent evolution of nanoparticles is a key to
understanding the formation of atmospheric aerosols, which is an essential factor of the Earth's climate. The particles are
classified according to their size and electric mobility. The full mobility range was logarithmically uniformly divided into 16
fractions. 10 of these fractions include the intermediate ions and 6 include the small ions. Immediately was determined the
particle electric mobility while the size was calculated as the mobility equivalent diameter of the particle.
The dataset contains files:
nanoion2010_11description.pdf – information about the origin of data and structure of the data files,
 nanoion2010_11instrument.pdf – description of the instrument SIGMA used for measuring nanoparticle mobility
and size distribution,
 nanoion2010_11hours.xls – hourly averages of nanoparticle distribution according to their mobility
and size, complemented with meteorological data,
 nanoion2010_11records.xls – five minute averages of nanoparticle distribution according to mobility and size,
 nanoion2010_11diagrams.ppt – contour plots of nanoparticle size distribution evolution during 147 days,
 nanoion2010_11.zip – compressed package of files for download and offline use on a personal computer.
References
Tammet, H. (2011). Symmetric inclined grid mobility analyzer for the measurement of charged clusters and fine nanoparticles in
atmospheric air. Aerosol Sci. Technol., 45, 468–479. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2010.546818.
Tammet, H., Komsaare, K., Hõrrak, U. (2013). Estimating neutral nanoparticle steady-state size distribution and growth according
to measurements of intermediate air ions. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 13, 9597–9603. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-9597-2013,
http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/13/9597/2013/.
Tammet, H., Komsaare, K., Hõrrak, U. (2014). Intermediate ions in the atmosphere. Atmos. Res., 135–136, 263–273.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2012.09.009.
Dataset Hyytiala08_10aerosol
Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.15155/repo-3
The dataset Hyytiala08_10aerosol contains results of routine measurements of atmospheric
aerosols carried on in a well equipped boreal research station during 3 years. The particle size
range from 3 nm to 15μm is split into 60 fractions and the records of distribution function are
presented for 21682 hours of measurements. The dataset provides scientists with a tool for
exploring the structure and dynamics of atmospheric aerosol size distribution. Additionally, it can
serve as a basis for data analysis exercises for students in field of environmental sciences.
The dataset includes three files:
Data_Hyytiala08_10aerosol.xls – a table, which contains 60 columns of values
of the particle size distribution function and 30 columns of complementary variables.
Description_Hyytiala08_10aerosol.pdf – detailed description of origin and structure the data.
Additionally includes sample diagrams, which illustrate the data and may provoke
new ideas for studies on atmospheric aerosol.
Package_Hyytiala08_10aerosol.zip – a compressed package, which contains both
the data file and the description file. The package is to be downloaded
to a personal computer, unzipped and used offline.
The dataset was compiled in process of studies on coagulation sink of fine nanoparticles and small
ions by Tammet and Kulmala (2014) and can be used for examination of air ion balance in the
atmosphere.
Reference
Tammet, H., Kulmala, M. (2014). Empiric equations of coagulation sink of fine nanoparticles on
background aerosol optimized for boreal zone. Boreal Environ. Res., 19, 115–126.
http://www.borenv.net/BER/pdfs/ber19/ber19-115.pdf.
FACTS:
 a lot of old data is lost
 some data is saved written or typed on paper
 some data is saved on punched tapes
 some data is saved on old floppy disks
 a lot of data is saved on hard disks
of different computers in a disordered state
 a limited amount of data is well arranged
and saved in DataCite repository
CONCLUSIONS
We need at least one expert who's
full-time job is management and processing
both the prospective and retrospective data
I guess this would cost about 100000 € per year
Otherwise the earlier work of about 10 scientist
during about 20 years will be finally lost and the
prospects for current work will be problematic
Thank you !