Aerosol particle measurements find many applications in industry and science. Therefore, it is not surprising that there are a variety of methods for measuring particle and particulate pollution. But what if we want to know more precisely which particles surround us? Our goal is to actively contribute to the existing knowledge about the diversity of particles in the air and to develop and advance solutions for real-time measurement and identification of airborne particles.

An overview of the technologies used:

• Measurement Methods
• Artificial Intelligence
• Open Source Software

Measurement methods

Digital Holography

Digital holography provides information about the morphology of each particle. The high-resolution holography setup generates images of each particle taken in flight. The advantages of the setup include a large field of view combined with very high resolution to generate a clear image even of particles in the low micrometer range.

UV-induced fluorescence spectroscopy 

Complementary information on the biochemical composition of the particles is collected by spectrally resolved fluorescence intensity and fluorescence lifetime measurements. This additional dimension of information allows a highly accurate identification of different aerosol particles.

Fluorescence intensity and spectrum

Several modulated sources excite the particle with different short-wavelength light as it passes by. The induced autofluorescence of the fluorophores contained in the particle is detected spectrally resolved by several receivers.

Fluorescence lifetime

Due to the high-frequency modulation of the excitation, the detected fluorescence emission also exhibits a modulation with a phase shift. Several measurements of different frequencies thus allow the determination of the fluorescence lifetimes of the fluorophores contained in the particle. This approach increases the number of independent measurement points, which is advantageous for the in-depth analysis of particles.

Scattered light and polarization measurement

The time-resolved scattered light measurement with two laser sources of different wavelengths provides information about the size and surface structure of the particles. The time-resolved measurement of the vertically and horizontally polarized scattered light provides additional information about the refractive index.

Our measurement methods in use

• SwisensPoleno Mars

• SwisensPoleno Jupiter

Artificial Intelligence

The measurement system generates a unique fingerprint and stores comprehensive information about the morphological and chemical properties of the aerosol particles in the form of data records. Machine learning algorithms integrated in the measuring systems identify the particles on the basis of the recorded properties and give them an appropriate “label”. With the help of the software components developed by Swisens, the identification results can be easily verified.

Artificial intelligence in all areas of application

• SwisensEcosystem Pollen Monitoring
• SwisensEcosystem Bioaerosol Monitoring
• SwisensEcosystem Bioaeorosol Research

Open Source Software

The software of our measuring systems is written in the programming language Python and licensed according to the GPL standard. This enables our customers to optimize parts of the software for individual requirements or to use it for other applications. This includes all software parts from the acquisition of the raw data to the pre-processing, training and operation of the machine learning models. Are you not entitled to independent extensions? The software development of Swisens is in close exchange with our user community and optimizes in the sense of the users.

Open Source Software in all areas of application

• SwisensEcosystem Pollen Monitoring
• SwisensEcosystem Bioaerosol Monitoring
• SwisensEcosystem Bioaeorosol Research

Learn more in our tutorials

Breaking new ground with Swisens

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This is what our satisfied customers say

Benoît Crouzy

Benoît Crouzy –
Project Manager Swiss Automated Pollen Network
Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss

„Swisens has shown to be a service-oriented partner in any case, addressing requests diligently. Our suggestions have always been heard and have been systematically translated in technical improvements. In short, Swisens AG has shown to be strongly oriented towards client and market needs. Finally, the tests we performed with Swisens AG resulted in a fruitful scientific exchange. In all, it is for us a great pleasure to recommend Swisens AG for operational or research projects in the field of automatic pollen measurements.“

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The University Of Manchester

Prof Martin Gallagher –
Centre for Atmospheric Science,
University of Manchester

„I speak on behalf of my colleagues who are Urban Observatory Principal Investigators and Research Collaborators from the University of Manchester that we have rarely seen, or been provided with such exemplary support as that provided by Swisens. Swisens customer support has been remarkable given the current situation, from remote training and commissioning to rapid support for hardware and software tools specific to our needs to extremely well organised seminars that actually focus on customer feedback and needs. In particular we have been impressed with the Swisens open source data approach and their attention to different users specific needs. Swisens technical innovations has already generated enormous interest in a bioaerosol-aerobiology community that until recently has been limited with respect to real-world and near real-time detection and importantly quantification of airborne bioaerosol concentrations. Their approach has developed significant rapport with multi-disciplinary researchers and Swisens should be lauded for this.“

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Mikhail Sofiev

Mikhail Sofiev –
Research Professor
Atmospheric Composition Research Department
Finnish Meteorological Institute

„The Finnish Meteorological Institute is very satisfied with the cooperation of Swisens AG. The agreed research and development programme is progressing well and mutual openness and collaborative atmosphere strongly supports it. Swisens participated in a workshop and supported the scientists in recording the test data based on the cooperation agreement. A particular outcome of the workshop was a new procedure for the calibration of real-time monitoring systems based on the SwisensAtomizer. It has been proven to deliver cleaner results than the approaches tried so far in different countries. FMI is very satisfied with cooperation of Swisens AG. Our suggestions regarding software tools were quickly accepted and implemented by Swisens engineers. We are indeed happy to work with Swisens and start opening real-time data to professionals in Finland.“

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