In-Situ Microphysical Measurements In Rocket Plumes With The Cloud And Aerosol Spectrometer (CAS)

High resolution, single particle measurements have been made in rocket plumes using an optical particle spectrometer that measures diameters from 0.5 to 44 um. The Cloud and Aerosol Spectrometer (CAS) measures the light scattered in two directions from individual particles that pass through a focused, 680 nm laser beam and we derive the diameter, shape and composition from this information. The CAS was mounted on the NASA WB57-F aircraft as part of the Plume Ultrafast Measurements Acquisition (PUMA) project, an experiment funded by NSF and NASA to study the chemistry and microphysics of rocket plumes. Measurements were first made in a plume generated by an Atlas IIAS rocket in May, 2004 and again in July, 2005 in the plume formed from the exhaust of the solid state boosters used to launch the space shuttle Discovery into orbit. The microstructure of the two plumes and the characteristics of their particles were distinctly different. The two cases had similar maximum concentrations of 300 cm-3, but the space shuttle particles were on average larger and a greater percentage of them were irregular in shape. An analysis of the distance between particles suggests clustering because of the non-Poisson shape of the frequency distribution of inter-arrival times.