The LCEA - Laboratório de Caracterização e Especiação de Aerossóis, consists of a set of coupled equipments and knowhow installed between 2005 and 2008 at the Nuclear and Technological Campus (CTN), co-funded in the scope of the FCT Re-equipment Program of 2002 under the REEQ/377/FIS/2005 contract.
These set aims at the study of natural and human made aerosols and its atmospheric dynamics by characterising the atmosphere meteorologic parameters (CTN RUEMA), in parallel to its gaseous composition in O3, SO2, NO, NO2, CO2 and gaseous Hg (DOAS). Airborne samples are also sampled using home made sampling equipment, based on the Gent sampler units (URSA).
Filtered airborne particle samples are analysed in the Van de Graaff PIXE system and a new high-resolution Energy Dispersive System PIXE unit capable of separating usually overlapped lines (HRHE-PIXE) was installed at the 3MV tandetron accelerator. Limitations in funding and consequent strategic decisions lead to the condition that the HRHE-PIXE system presently cannot be used to analyse aerosol samples but only samples that can withstand high beam intensities
HRHE-PIXE - High Resolution High Energy PIXE set-up
3MV Tandetron and the EDS high resolution system shelter (left). The installation team on the right shows all those involved in the installation final stage where technical workshop personnel provided many last minute solution to overcome mechanical fine-tuning problems. Below are the first spectra obtained with the system.
DOAS & RUEMA - Differential Optical Absorption Spectrometer and Meteorological station
Left, view of the path used by the DOAS system to determine the gaseous atmospheric compounds concentration. On the right, the yellow line
shows the location of the DOAS measuring path on the Campus Tecnológico e Nuclear and the white spot shows the location of the meteorological (RUEMA) station.
First data from this system shows that CO2 and gaseous Hg behave as originating in natural sources.
Equipment financed by
Managing Authority and Funding
FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Plano Nacional de Re-equipamento Científico
Project Reference: REEQ/377/FIS/2005 - Laboratory for Characterization and Speciation of Aerosol.
Responsible Researcher: Miguel A. Reis (mareis@ctn.tecnico.ulisboa.pt)
Access to the equipment: equipment is available to the scientifical and industrial communities for collaborations within the framework of research projects or technical services. The research under projects contracts or Industry projects must preview a budget depending on the time and equipment to be use. Preliminary studies to develop a new idea for a project the user must sustain the consumables costs.
Group contacts:
- Leader: Miguel A. Reis (mareis@ctn.tecnico.ulisboa.pt ); + 351 21 994 6107
- Team: P. Cristina Chaves (cchaves@ctn.tecnico.ulisboa.pt); + 351 21 994 6065/6105
Ana Taborda (ataborda@ctn.tecnico.ulisboa.pt); + 351 21 994 6065/6105