Methods and systems for detecting aerosol particles

A method for identifying the composition of aerosol particles, the method comprising:

• generating an aerosol particle beam of single particles using an aerosol beam generator;
• disposing a single guide tube downstream of the aerosol beam generator to urge particles exiting the aerosol beam generator to flow nearabout the longitudinal axis of the guide tube;
• using a single continuous laser beam generated by a continuous laser generator, and in association with a data analysis system:
• hitting each particle with the single continuous laser beam as each particle exits the guide tube, and enters the continuous laser beam;
• indexing each particle in the beam of single particles;
• optically characterizing, in association with one or more laser scattering devices, particle size, particle shape, and fluorescence of each indexed particle and generating optical data;
• and
• selecting which indexed particle is to be ionized;
• triggering a pulse ionization laser generator, using the continuous laser beam, to produce a pulse ionization laser beam including UV pulses and IR pulses or UV pulses, when each selected indexed particle enters the continuous timing laser beam, wherein the continuous laser generator and the pulse ionization laser generator are configured to produce the continuous laser beam and the pulse ionization laser beam, respectively, as overlapping beams;
• analyzing using a TOFMS detector ionized fragments associated with each selected indexed particle generated when the pulse ionization laser beam strikes each particle in an ionization region of the pulse laser beam and generating unique mass spectral data associated with each selected indexed particle;
• and
• determining the composition of each selected indexed particle by:
• compiling the optical data with unique mass spectral data associated with each selected indexed particle using data fusion;
• and
• comparing the compiled data with a training data set comprising of a knowledge base of known biological matter to predict composition of the bioaerosol particles.