FAQ AMS Glossary

AMS glossary (beta)

Important Notes

This glossary of terms typically used by the AMS community is a work in progress - so is by no means complete or comprehensive. For now, we'll keep it alphabetical, but this may be changed based on user feed-back. Please continue to add and edit!

Glossary

f_44: the fraction of the organic signal that is observed at m/z = 44

Non-refractory species: chemical components of aerosol that are volatilized in the AMS, and are observed in the "Difference spectrum"

Refractory species: chemical components of aerosol that are not volatile enough to vaporize in the AMS, and thus are never observed by the instrument

Semi-refractory signals: chemical components of aerosol that are relatively less volatile, and only slowly vaporize in the AMS. Functionally, they are observed in both the the Closed and Open signals (time-scale for vaporization is slow). Examples include Pb (lead) and possibly NaCl