Aerosol optical properties calculated from size distribution measurements: An uncertainty study Aerosol Science and Technology

We use Monte Carlo uncertainty propagation to estimate the uncertainty of aerosol scatter-ing coefficients, r s, that have been derived from measured particle size distributions. We con- sider the particular case where the size distributions are measured using a combination of a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) and an aerodynamic particle sizer (APS). Uncertainties that are propagated include those intrinsic to the instruments and those that arise from vari- abilities in aerosol microphysical properties, including particle shape, density, and complexrefractive index. Particular emphasis is put on the size dependent counting efficiency of both