Precision and accuracy of β gauge for aerosol mass determinations

Results of an experimental determination of the precision and the accuracy of a β-ray attenuation method for measurement of aerosol mass are presented. The instrumental precision for a short-term experiment was 25 μg for a 6.5-cm2 deposit collected on approximately 1 mg/cm2 Teflon filters; for a longer-term experiment the precision was 27 μg. The precision of the gravimetric determinations of aerosol deposits was 22 μg for Teflon filters weighed to 1 μg. Filter reorientation and air density changes that were able adversely to affect the β-ray attenuation results are discussed. β-ray attenuation results are in good agreement with gravimetric measurements on the same filter-collected aerosols. Using dichotomous samplers in Durham, NC, we collected 136 aerosol samples on Teflon filters in two size ranges. A regression line was calculated implicitly assuming errors in both measurements of mass. The 90% confidence intervals lay within 21 μg of the regression line for mean fine fraction aerosol mass loadings of 536 μg and within 19 μg of the regression line for mean coarse fraction aerosol mass loadings of 349 μg. Any bias between gravimetric and β-gauge mass measurements was found to be less than 5%