UMBS PROPHET Tower Instrumentation Set Up

Last week Pratt Group graduate students Nate May and Matthew Gunsch, recent graduate Jillian Cellini, and Professor Kerri Pratt traveled to the University of Michigan Biological Station in Pellston, MI for our summer aerosol field study. Professor Andrew Ault and Ault group graduate students Daniel Gardner and Becky Craig also came up for the instrument set-up portion of the field campaign occurring this summer at the PROPHET tower site. UMBS Summer REU student Stephanie Schmidt from Michigan State University was also present to assist our team in setting up our instrumentation.

From left to right: Graduate Students Nate May, Dan Gardner, Matthew Gunsch, Garrett Welshofer, Eric Boone, and Professor Ault helping to load the ATOFMS before departing from Ann Arbor.

Among the instruments present during this field campaign that was set up last week was an ATOFMS (Aerosol Time-of-Flight Spectrometer), on loan from Prof. Phil Hopke at Clarkson University (Thank you!!). The ATOFMS will sample from the top of the PROPHET tower, above the forest canopy, from the sampling line that was installed during the group's last visit to the PROPHET site.  We also set up a MOUDI (micro-orifice uniform deposit impactor) to collect atmospheric particles for later off-line analysis.  These instruments now accompany the aerosol sizing instrumentation that was set-up in June.  Atmospheric measurements are also being made by Prof. Eric Kort's group from the University of Michigan and Prof. Tim VanReken's group from Washington State University, so it should be a productive study!

The first day of the set-up process on the ground at the PROPHET lab.

With the set up of the instruments complete thanks to the help of everyone present, the field study at the PROPHET tower has gotten off to a fantastic start!

Recent Pratt lab graduate Jillian Cellini and Ault lab graduate students Becky Craig and Dan Gardner prepped to scale the PROPHET tower.