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Record W4416093646 · doi:10.5194/amt-19-3123-2026

Quantitative uncertainty and post-processing for micro-aethalometers measuring black carbon

2025· preprint· en· W4416093646 on OpenAlexafffund
Timothy A. Sipkens, Joel C. Corbin, Kerry Chen, Laura-Hélèna Rivellini, Jonathan P. D. Abbatt, Jason S. Olfert

Bibliographic record

VenueAtmospheric measurement techniques · 2025
Typepreprint
Languageen
FieldEarth and Planetary Sciences
TopicAtmospheric chemistry and aerosols
Canadian institutionsUniversity of TorontoUniversity of AlbertaNational Research Council CanadaMétis National Council
FundersNational Research Council CanadaEnvironment and Climate Change Canada
KeywordsAethalometerPhotometerSampling (signal processing)Measurement uncertaintyMeasure (data warehouse)Particle (ecology)Multiplicative functionFilter (signal processing)Mass concentration (chemistry)

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Abstract. Aethalometers measure black carbon mass concentrations by monitoring light attenuation through a particle filter as it becomes laden with aerosols. As the uncertainties in the resulting measurements are not easily quantified via a bottom-up traceable approach, there is a need for inter-device comparisons to provide operationally defined uncertainties. The present work compared five micro-aethalometers to known mass concentrations of laboratory-generated soot, formed using an inverted ethylene flame and a Centrifugal Particle Mass Analyzer-Electrometer Reference Mass Standard (CERMS). Uncertainties were found to scale with mass concentration, with multiplicative errors between devices of approximately 10 % in the best case of long sampling times and/or high mass concentrations. A quantitative expression is provided for the uncertainty in the aethalometer measurements as a function of mass concentration, sampling interval, and flow rate. An open-source algorithm is also provided for the unsupervised reanalysis of aethalometer or other filter photometer data over varying periods to reach a specified target uncertainty.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.003
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.009
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Bench or experimental · Consensus signal: none
GenreCandidate signal: Methods · Consensus signal: Methods
Teacher disagreement score0.003
Threshold uncertainty score0.015

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0030.009
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0010.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.001
Bibliometrics0.0020.001
Science and technology studies0.0010.000
Scholarly communication0.0010.001
Open science0.0010.001
Research integrity0.0010.001
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0030.001

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.048
GPT teacher head0.261
Teacher spread0.213 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designBench or experimental
Domainnot available
GenreMethods

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations0
Published2025
Admission routes2
Has abstractyes

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