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Title: Black carbon aerosol number and mass concentration measurements by picosecond short-range elastic backscatter lidar

Journal Article · · Scientific Reports

AbstractBlack carbon aerosol emissions are recognized as contributors to global warming and air pollution. There remains, however, a lack of techniques to remotely measure black carbon aerosol particles with high range and time resolution. This article presents a direct and contact-free remote technique to estimate the black carbon aerosol number and mass concentration at a few meters from the emission source. This is done using the Colibri instrument based on a novel technique, referred to here as Picosecond Short-Range Elastic Backscatter Lidar (PSR-EBL). To address the complexity of retrieving lidar products at short measurement ranges, we apply a forward inversion method featuring radiometric lidar calibration. Our method is based on an extension of a well-established light-scattering model, the Rayleigh–Debye–Gans for Fractal-Aggregates (RDG-FA) theory, which computes an analytical expression of lidar parameters. These parameters are the backscattering cross-sections and the lidar ratio for black carbon fractal aggregates. Using a small-scale Jet A-1 kerosene pool fire, we demonstrate the ability of the technique to quantify the aerosol number and mass concentration with centimetre range-resolution and millisecond time-resolution.

Research Organization:
Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center
Sponsoring Organization:
ONERA; National Science Foundation (NSF); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); US Army Research Office (ARO); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0021168; 1453987; NSF-1665456; FA9550-19-1- 0078; W911NF2120053; ATM-1625598
OSTI ID:
1869022
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1869638; OSTI ID: 1872917
Journal Information:
Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Vol. 12 Journal Issue: 1; ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

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