Beta Gauge for Aerosol Mass Measurement

Within the International Atomic Energy Agency's coordinated research programs involving air quality monitoring, the participants have been provided with equipment for aerosol sampling and measurement. For aerosol mass measurements, a beta gauge was designed and constructed to provide the necessary performance in collected aerosol mass measurement at the minimum cost. A calibration for the beta gauge was performed to determine the precision of this unit. Two experiments with different size particles were conducted to calibrate the system. This calibration shows that the system provides satisfactory precision with a maximum deviation of approximately 8%. The bias between beta gauge and gravimetric method was found to be 6% on average when examining particles of different composition.