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Title: Aglite Lidar: A Portable Elastic Lidar System for Investigating Aerosol and Wind Motions at or Around Agricultural Production Facilities

Author
item MARCHANT, CHRISTIAN - SPACE DYNAMICS LABORATORY
item WILKERSON, THOMAS - SPACE DYNAMICS LABORATORY
item BINGHAM, GAIL - SPACE DYNAMICS LABORATORY
item ZAVYALOV, VLADIMIR - SPACE DYNAMICS LABORATORY
item ANDERSON, JAN MARIE - SPACE DYNAMICS LABORATORY
item WRIGHT, CORDELL - SPACE DYNAMICS LABORATORY
item CORNELSEN, SCOTT - CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC INC.
item MARTIN, RANDAL - UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
item SILVA, PHILIP - UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
item Hatfield, Jerry

Submitted to: Journal of Applied Remote Sensing (JARS)
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/25/2009
Publication Date: 3/31/2009
Citation: Marchant, C.C., Wilkerson, T.D., Bingham, G.E., Zavyalov, V.V., Anderson, J., Wright, C.B., Cornelsen, S.S., Martin, R.S., Silva, P.J., Hatfield, J.L. 2009. Aglite Lidar: A Portable Elastic Lidar System for Investigating Aerosol and Wind Motions at or Around Agricultural Production Facilities. Journal of Applied Remote Sensing (JARS). 3:033511. [doi:10.1117/1.3097928]

Interpretive Summary: Detection of particulates in the atmosphere has been measured with either filters that are weighed after exposure to a given air flow or optical particle counters. These sensors measure the particulates at a given point; however, single point measurements are difficult to estimate the dynamics of the particulate plume. Particulates are easily measured with light and a light detection and ranging (lidar) system was developed to measure the aerosol concentration with three wavelengths. This system has been deployed in different evaluation studies around different agricultural facilities and it was found that this type of particulate detection is sensitive to particulate concentrations. This type of measurement method allows for a rapid measurement of particulate concentrations at different locations within the plume. This information provides valuable information for scientists and air quality specialists to understand the dynamics of plume dispersion from agricultural operations.

Technical Abstract: The Aglite Lidar is a portable scanning lidar that can be quickly deployed at agricultural and other air quality study sites. The purpose of Aglite is to map the concentration of PM10 and PM2.5 in aerosol plumes from agricultural and other sources. Aglite uses a high-repetition rate low-pulse energy 3-wavelength YAG laser with photon-counting detection together with a steerable pointing mirror to measure aerosol concentration with high spatial and temporal resolution. Aglite has been used in field campaigns in Iowa, Utah and California. The instrument is described, and performance and lidar sensitivity data are presented. The value of the lidar in aerosol plume mapping is demonstrated, as is the ability to extract wind-speed information from the lidar data.