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Abstract

Primary biological aerosol particles (PBAP) in the atmosphere are highly relevant for the Earth system, climate, and public health. The analysis of PBAP, however, remains challenging due to their high diversity and large spatiotemporal variability. For real-time PBAP analysis, light-induced fluorescence (LIF) instruments have been developed and widely used in laboratory and ambient studies. The interpretation of fluorescence data from these instruments, however, is often limited by a lack of spectroscopic information. This study introduces a new instrument – the Spectral Intensity Bioaerosol Sensor (SIBS) – that resolves fluorescence spectra for single particles and, thus, promises to expand the scope of fluorescent PBAP quantification and classification.

The SIBS shares key design components with the latest versions of the Wideband Integrated Bioaerosol Sensor (WIBS) and the findings presented here are also relevant for the widely deployed WIBS-4A and WIBS-NEO as well as other LIF instruments. The key features of the SIBS and findings of this study can be summarized as follows:

– Particle sizing yields reproducible linear responses for particles in the range of 300 nm to 20 µm. The lower sizing limit is significantly smaller than for earlier commercial LIF instruments (e.g., WIBS-4A and the Ultraviolet Aerodynamic Particle Sizer (UV-APS)), expanding the analytical scope into the accumulation mode size range.
– Fluorescence spectra are recorded for two excitation wavelengths (λex = 285 and 370 nm) and a wide range of emission wavelengths (λmean = 302–721 nm) with a resolution of 16 detection channels, which is higher than for most other commercially available LIF bioaerosol sensors.

– Fluorescence spectra obtained for 16 reference compounds confirm that the SIBS provides sufficient spectral resolution to distinguish major modes of molecular fluorescence. For example, the SIBS resolves the spectral difference between bacteriochlorophyll and chlorophyll a/b.

– A spectral correction of the instrument-specific detector response is essential to use the full fluorescence emission range.

– Asymmetry factor (AF) data were assessed and were found to provide only limited analytical information.

– In test measurements with ambient air, the SIBS worked reliably and yielded characteristically different spectra for single particles in the coarse mode with an overall fluorescent particle fraction of ~ 4 % (3σ threshold), which is consistent with earlier studies in comparable environments.