A measuring system is disclosed which detects and measures the volume concentration and mass flow of the airborne conductive particles, such as carbon-absorptive chaff particles. The measuring system can be used to estimate the effective conductivity of the detected airborne conductive particles. Further, if particles are not airborne, but are lying on a surface they may be made to become airborne by the vacuum source of the present invention and then detected by the measuring system of the present invention.