BIODETECT 2014 campaign in Paris area : Overview of the experimental strategy and preliminary results

During summer 2014 (June to August) the BIODETECT 2014 campaign took place at two sites in the region of Paris, France: CEA/Saclay (suburban) and Paris/ LHVP (urban). A set of innovative fluorescence instruments have been deployed to compare their ability to detect and characterize in real time the bioaerosol present in urban and suburban atmospheres. All on line fluorescence instruments were calibrated with the same, fresh sets fluorescent polystyrene latex (PSL) spheres at the start, middle, and end of the campaign for quality control. To understand atmospheric and biological processes involved in the fluorescent particulate matter observed, microscopic identification and collection onto species-specific agar gelwas performed every 30 minutes during several periods of the campaign. Analysis of chemicals tracers (e.g. arabitol, mannitol) was performed by a novel real-time technique to track specific fungal spores events by coupling a Particle Into Liquid Samples (PILS) to a triple quad mass spectrometer (ABSCIEX). The sampling sites were often impacted by anthropogenic sources and pollution events from Paris. To constrain the data set a full range of instruments commonly used in atmospheric science were used. PM1 mass in each of several common chemical fractions (e.g. sulfate, nitrate, organics, chloride) was provided via ACSM. Also recorded was: size distribution of particle number between 10 nm to 20 µm (TSI, SMPS and APS), total aerosol mass (TEOM-FDMS), combustion tracers (Aethalolmeter AE33), and traces gases measurements like VOC (PTRMS) NOx and Ozone (Teledyne). Ice nuclei (IN) studies have been performed to identify size-resolved concentrations of IN. We present here our preliminary results on the inter-comparison methods to detect bioaerosols in the atmosphere