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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ARD</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Aerosol Research Discussions</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ARD</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Aerosol Research Discuss.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">2940-3405</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name></publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/ar-2026-33</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>A metrological calibration facility for particle number counters used in emission measurements</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Waheed</surname>
<given-names>Anza</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Saturno</surname>
<given-names>Jorge</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3761-3957</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Malik</surname>
<given-names>Arpit</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Rosahl</surname>
<given-names>Johannes</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pratzler</surname>
<given-names>Sonja</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Nowak</surname>
<given-names>Andreas</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>25</day>
<month>09</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>20</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Anza Waheed et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://ar.copernicus.org/preprints/ar-2026-33/">This article is available from https://ar.copernicus.org/preprints/ar-2026-33/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://ar.copernicus.org/preprints/ar-2026-33/ar-2026-33.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://ar.copernicus.org/preprints/ar-2026-33/ar-2026-33.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>A metrological calibration facility for particle number counters (PNCs) has been developed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) as a primary reference standard for this metric required in the quantification of solid soot emission as described in national and European regulatory frameworks. This study describes the calibration of a Condensation Particle Counter (CPC) using PTB&amp;rsquo;s primary aerosol number standard, a Faraday Cup Aerosol Electrometer (FCAE). The calibration facility enables high accuracy determination of CPC counting efficiency for particles with mobility diameters between 17 and 200 nm, as well as linearity measurements of particle number concentrations ranging from 1 cm⁻&amp;sup3; to 20 000 cm⁻&amp;sup3;. Soot aerosol particles were generated using a miniCAST 5303 and subsequently treating them in a Catalytic Stripper to remove volatile components before homogenisation in an integrated mixing unit. The aerosol flow was distributed via a ten-port manifold, allowing simultaneous evaluation of up to eight CPCs and a FCAE connected to two different ports simultaneously. The results demonstrate that the facility provides state-of-the-art metrological capabilities for CPC calibration, supporting improved reliability and comparability of particle number measurements in emission control applications.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="20"/></counts>
</article-meta>
</front>
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