A multitude of techniques have been developed to measure the absorption of light by aerosols, but the techniques capable of making UV measurements are prone to artifacts. Photoacoustic spectrometry (PAS) provides an in-situ direct measurement of the absorption of light by aerosol particles. A novel PAS system was developed with the ability to make absorption measurements ranging from 300-700 nm. Light from a Hg arc lamp is filtered to eight separate wavelength bands centered at 301 nm, 314 nm, 364 nm, 405 nm, 436 nm, 546 nm, 578 nm, 687 nm. After the completion of a gas-phase calibration, these wavelengths bands, with the expectation of 687 nm, feature detection limits capable of making ambient aerosol measurements. These measurements allow for an unique approach for data prorogation is in order to better represent the optical properties of absorbing aerosols.