BIOPOP

BIOaerosol Profiling with Open Path sensors

28 May 2025 - 31 August 2025

Lead Scientist: Maria Zawadowicz

Observatory: AMF (ARM Mobile Facility 1)

Understanding the vertical distribution of bioaerosols is crucial for advancing knowledge in public health, climate science, ecology, and atmospheric chemistry. Bioaerosols—airborne particles of biological origin such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, pollen, and spores—play significant roles in cloud formation, disease transmission, and biogeochemical cycling. While bioaerosol composition and abundance at ground level have been extensively studied, their vertical distribution remains poorly characterized across different geographic regions and meteorological conditions. Bioaerosols such as fungal spores and pollen frequently fall into coarse (1 𝜇m–10 𝜇m) and super-coarse (>10 𝜇m) aerosol size ranges, which severely complicates their sampling through traditional aerosol inlets optimized for accumulation and finer modes (<1 𝜇m). To overcome this limitation, we propose to deploy open-path optical instrumentation aboard the ARM tethered balloon system (TBS) at the Bankhead National Forest (BNF) site to directly characterize the coarse-mode biological aerosol population. Specifically, we will use the Mesa Photonics Cloud Droplet Measurement System (CDMS) and the Video Ice Particle Sampler (VIPS), which are capable of imaging large particles in ambient air without relying on inlet transmission. These instruments are ideally suited to capturing real-time imagery and size information of pollen and other coarse particles, enabling an improved understanding of the vertical distribution and characteristics of bioaerosols in the boundary layer.