Eye-safe tracking of oil fog plumes by UV lidar

Journal Article · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1983 · Appl. Opt.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.22.002282· OSTI ID:5674853

Eberhard, W L

NOAA's Wave Propagation Laboratory operated a plume-tracking lidar during two field experiments investigating atmospheric dispersion in complex terrain. The lidar successfully acquired data on oil fog plume behavior by detecting the elastic backscatter of the pulsed output of a frequency-doubled ruby laser. This UV wavelength (0.3472 ..mu..m) met stringent eye safety restrictions. An analysis of signal and noise levels demonstrates that plume definition at a wavelength of 0.3472 ..mu..m is superior in many cases to that of 0.6943 ..mu..m when pulse energies are low enough to be eye-safe at the range to the plume. This is often true in spite of the high threshold set by the large molecular scatter from the ambient air at the UV wavelength. Backscatter coefficients of oil fog at the shorter wavelength were 1--4 x larger than at the longer wavelength.

• Research Organization: NOAA Wave Propagation Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado 80303
• OSTI ID: 5674853
• Journal Information: Appl. Opt.; (United States), Journal Name: Appl. Opt.; (United States) Vol. 22:15; ISSN APOPA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020900 -- Petroleum-- Environmental Aspects
500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AEROSOL MONITORING
BODY
BODY AREAS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EYES
FACE
FOG
HEAD
LASER RADIATION
LIGHT SCATTERING
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MONITORING
OILS
OPTICAL RADAR
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PLUMES
RADAR
RADIATIONS
RANGE FINDERS
REMOTE SENSING
RESOLUTION
SAFETY
SCATTERING
SENSE ORGANS
SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO
SPATIAL RESOLUTION
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION