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In this paper, a light-weight, low-power atmospheric multi-parameter sensor (AMPS), which could be mounted on small flying platforms such as a tethered balloon, a quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a UAV helicopter, etc., is implemented and integrated to sample vertical distribution of aerosols with integrated parameters of aerosol particle concentration, temperature, relative humidity and atmospheric pressure.

The AMPS integrates three kinds of probes in an embedded system. A synchronous method based on GPS is proposed to drive the laser aerosol particle sensor, the temperature and humidity probe and the pressure probe to sample four channels approximately simultaneously. Different kinds of housing are designed to accommodate various flying platforms, and the weight is controlled to adapt the payload of each platform.

A series of validation tests show that while the AMPS achieves high precision, its power consumption is less than 1.3 W, which is essential for light flying platforms. The AMPS was mounted on different flying platforms and the difference was evaluated. For three times every five days, vertical profiles of PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations were observed by the AMPS mounted on a quad-rotor UAV, which revealed the significant correlation between the aerosol particle concentration and atmospheric parameters.

A new light-weight and low-power AMPS for small flying platforms is designed and tested, which provides an effective way to explore the properties of aerosol vertical distribution, and to monitor pollutants flexibly.