The Metrohm Monitor for AeRosol and Gases (MARGA) is a dedicated solution for on-line monitoring of atmospheric inorganic gases and aerosols in ambient air.
A MARGA instrument was recently used in a large field campaign in the Southeastern US to measure the inorganic composition of aerosols and the key gases (HNO3, NH3, SO2) in equilibrium with each aerosol, enabling elucidation of aerosol composition and inferences about origin.
Results of this study were published recently in a research paper.
MARGA is an ambient air monitoring system that is capable of measuring the gas phase concentrations of NH3, HNO3, HCl, HNO2, and SO2, as well as the particulate matter (aerosol) concentrations of NO3- , Cl-, SO42- , NH4 , Na , K , Ca2 and Mg2 .
The instrument draws in a 1m3 volume of ambient air each hour. The gases are then quantitatively (more than 99.7%) absorbed in a wetted rotating denuder (WRD) and the aerosols, which pass through the WRD, are trapped in a steam-jet aerosol collector (SJAC).
The trapped aerosols are quantitatively (more than 99.7%) separated from the airstream cyclone using condensational growth with supersaturated steam.
The liquid streams from the WRD (dissolved gases) and SJAC (dissolved aerosols) are degassed and mixed with an internal standard before controlled injection into an anion and a cation ion chromatograph, both from Metrohm.
Determinations are continuously controlled by an internal calibration, performed by the addition of a standard solution (Li & Br).
MARGA can operate for seven days unattended and can be controlled via an internet connection. The size of particulate matter (PM) can be selected by placing special designed cyclones (e.g. PM10, PM2.5 or PM1.0) before the entrance of the sampling system.
