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Supported Instruments

AeroViz provides comprehensive support for reading and processing data from a wide range of aerosol measurement instruments. Each instrument has a dedicated reader that handles its specific data format, file structure, and measurement characteristics.

Instrument Support

AeroViz automatically detects instrument types based on file format and content structure. You don't need to specify the instrument type manually when using the RawDataReader factory function.

Instrument Categories

Aethalometers (Black Carbon Measurement)

Instruments for measuring black carbon and light absorption:

  • AE33 - Magee Scientific AE33 (7-wavelength aethalometer)
  • AE43 - Magee Scientific AE43 (real-time BC measurements)
  • BC1054 - MetOne BC1054 (high-resolution absorption)
  • MA350 - AethLabs MA350 (multi-angle absorption photometer)

Nephelometers (Light Scattering)

Instruments for measuring aerosol light scattering:

  • Aurora - Ecotech Aurora (3-wavelength nephelometer)
  • NEPH - TSI Nephelometer (standard scattering measurements)

Particle Sizers

Instruments for measuring particle size distributions:

  • SMPS - Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (10-600 nm)
  • APS - Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (0.5-20 μm)
  • GRIMM - GRIMM Aerosol Spectrometer (optical sizing)

Chemical Analysis

Instruments for chemical composition analysis:

  • IGAC - Ion chromatography (water-soluble ions)
  • OCEC - Organic/Elemental Carbon Analyzer
  • VOC - Volatile Organic Compounds Monitor
  • XRF - X-Ray Fluorescence (elemental analysis)
  • TEOM - Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (PM mass)
  • BAM1020 - Beta Attenuation Monitor (PM2.5 mass)

Usage Example

from AeroViz.rawDataReader import RawDataReader

# Automatic instrument detection
reader = RawDataReader("instrument_data.txt")
data = reader.read()

# The reader automatically detects the instrument type
print(f"Detected instrument: {reader.instrument_type}")
print(f"Time resolution: {reader.time_resolution}")

Technical Specifications

The following table provides detailed technical specifications for all supported instruments:

Instrument Time Resolution File Type Display Columns QAQC method
NEPH (Nephelometer) 5min .dat G default
Aurora (Nephelometer) 1min .csv G default
SMPS (Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer) 6min .txt, .csv all default
GRIMM (GRIMM Aerosol Technik) 6min .dat all default
APS_3321 (Aerodynamic Particle Sizer) 6min .txt all default
AE33 (Aethalometer Model 33) 1min .dat BC6 default
AE43 (Aethalometer Model 43) 1min .dat BC6 default
BC1054 (Black Carbon Monitor 1054) 1min .csv BC9 default
MA350 (MicroAeth MA350) 1min .csv BC5 default
BAM1020 (Beta Attenuation Mass Monitor) 1h .csv Conc default
TEOM (Continuous Ambient Particulate Monitor) 6min .csv PM_Total, PM_NV default
OCEC (Sunset Organic Carbon Elemental Carbon Analyzer) 1h *LCRes.csv Thermal_OC, Thermal_EC, Optical_OC, Optical_EC default
IGAC (In-situ Gas and Aerosol Compositions monitor) 1h .csv Na+, NH4+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl-, NO2-, NO3-, SO42- default
XRF (X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer) 1h .csv Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu... default
VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds Monitor) 1h .csv voc default
EPA 1h .csv all default
Minion 1h .csv, .xlsx Na+, NH4+, Cl-, NO3-, SO42-, Al, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe default

Notes

  1. For VOC, due to the numerous display columns, we've simply noted "voc" in the table. In reality, it includes many specific VOC compound names.
  2. For instruments marked with "all", it means all available columns or intervals are displayed.
  3. The display columns for XRF include a large number of element names, all of which are listed.

Applying Method

Processing Step Details NEPH Aurora BC1054 AE33 TEOM APS SMPS OCEC
Instrument Raw Data Time Resolution 5 or 6min 1min 1min 1min 6min 6min 6min 1h
QAQC self-check Instrument Status
noise
Measurement Range 0 < val < 2000 0 < val < 2000 0 < val < 20000 0 < val < 20000 0 < val < ?? 1 < val <700 2000 < val < 1e6 -5 < val < 100
T_OC > 0.3, O_OC > 0.3
T_EC > 0.015, O_EC > 0.015
Data representativeness 50% 50% 50% 50% 50% 50% 50% None
Data Continuously 1h 1h 1h 1h 6h None None 24h
Specific Check RGB RGB

Quality Control Methods

All instruments use the "default" QAQC method which includes:

  • Range Validation - Data outside physical limits are flagged
  • Continuity Check - Gaps in data are identified
  • Status Monitoring - Instrument status flags are evaluated
  • Representativeness - Minimum data coverage requirements

Adding New Instruments

To add support for a new instrument, you need to:

  1. Create a new reader class inheriting from AbstractReader
  2. Implement the required methods for data parsing
  3. Add instrument detection logic
  4. Include appropriate quality control methods

Example Reader Implementation

from AeroViz.rawDataReader.core.AbstractReader import AbstractReader

class MyInstrumentReader(AbstractReader):
    def __init__(self, file_path, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(file_path, **kwargs)

    def read_data(self):
        # Implement your data reading logic
        pass

    def apply_qc(self):
        # Implement quality control
        pass