Aerosol chemical speciation
– Instrument : Automatic aerosol samplers with size discrimination : PM2,5, PM10, low volume sampling 5l/min with two sampling lines : Teflon filters for mineral analysis and Quartz filters for carbon analysis.
– Parameters : concentrations in μg m-3
- major inorganic and organic ion species (using ion chromatography)
- carbonaceous compounds (organic and black carbon; using thermal-optical analysis)
- total mass (using gravimetric measurements) concentrations in μg m-3
–Temporal resolution: weekly sampling

PM10 Concentrations

Atmospheric concentrations of Particulate Matter smaller than 10 mm (PM10) are measured using a Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM 1400A from Thermo Scientific) equipped with a PM10 inlet. The inlet is located at ~6.5 m, except at M’Bour (Senegal) (~10 m). The concentrations in mg.m-3 or ng.m-3 are recorded as 5 min averages.
Aerosol Optical Depth
– Aerosol optical depth are measured by the AERONET/PHOTONS sun photometer network. The network manages about 35 sites mainly located in France and Africa.
– Instrument : CIMEL Sun photometer
– Procedures and calibration: PHOTONS AERONET: http://loaphotons.univ-lille1.fr/photons/
– Database : http://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/new_web/data.html.
