Aircraft inlets connect airborne instruments for particle microphysical and chemical measurements with the ambient atmosphere. These inlets may bias the measurements due to their potential to enhance or remove certain particle size fractions in the sample. The aircraft body itself may disturb the ambient air streamlines and, hence, the particle sampling. Also, anisokinetic sampling and transmission losses within the sampling lines may cause the sampled aerosol to differ from the ambient aerosol. In addition, inlets may change the particle composition and size through the evaporation of water and other volatile materials due to compressibility effects or heat transfer. These problems have been discussed at an international workshop that was held at the Leibniz-Institute for Tropospheric Research (IfT) in Leipzig, Germany, on 12–13 April 2002. The discussions, conclusions, and recommendations from this workshop are summarized here.
Leibniz-lnstitut für Troposphärenforschung, Leipzig, Germany
Physics Department, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques, Météo-France, Toulouse, France
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt, Flugbetrieb, Wessling, Germany
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt, Wessling, Germany
Centre de Geophysics, Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal
Institute für Chemie und Dynamik der Geosphäre I: Stratosphäre, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
enviscope GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Centre d'Aviation Météorologique, Météo-France/CNRM, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France
Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Met Office, Farnborough, United Kingdom
Abteilung Wolkenphysik und -chemie, Max-Planck-lnstitut für Chemie, Mainz, Germany
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, J. Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, Germany
Laboratoire de Méteorologie Physique, Université Blaise Pascal, Aubière, France
Department of Engineering, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado
A supplement to this article is available online (DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-85-1-Wendisch)
