Editor’s note: Stephen Springston, a scientist from Brookhaven National Laboratory, headed to the STORMVEX deployment site in October to set up the Aerosol Observing System (AOS). This week, we will feature blog posts about his experience in Colorado.

The aerosol inlet on the new AOS units is modeled after the existing AOS units at the Southern Great Plains site, the first ARM Mobile Facility, and elsewhere. The dimensions and flow regimes are identical to allow intercomparability of measurements. However, there are differences.

Made of two sections of lightweight, commercial irrigation tubing, the sampling tube requires no external tower, only guy wires to the corners of the AOS. This allows the tower to be shipped internally and erected on site with three people from the roof of the fall-protected structure without using a crane. Shown here is a practice assembly at BNL used to iron out problems. A hinged base greatly facilitates assembly and makes the operation much safer.