L. Núñez

Application of a lidar system to the estimation of the ambient aerosol source

This work presents the aerosol vertical profiles obtained by means of an elastic backscatter ground-based LIDAR, using the 532-nm radiation from a Nd:YAG laser. Simultaneously, the aerosol size distribution in the ambient air was continuously monitored at ground level using an aerosol spectrometer that performs particulate measurements by laser light scattering. Additional information about aerosol index was obtained from TOMS data. The vertical profiles have been useful to relate satellite observations with ground level measurements. In our experiment, deployed on the Iberian Peninsula, an estimation of the provenance of aerosols was made by analyzing the results provided by these instruments, jointly with synoptic meteorological information available.

Assessment of the performance of a DIAL system by comparison with a correlation spectrometer COSPEC V in SO2 mode.

In this work, experimental results obtained with the first Spanish LIDAR-DIAL prototype are presented. This DIAL consists of the well-known configuration of a dye laser as the tuning element, pumped by a Nd:YAG laser. In order to evaluate the performance of this DIAL, parallel measurements of SO2 from industrial point sources with a passive remote technique were carried out. The spectrometer used as reference instrument was a COSPEC V, widely used for SO2 concentration measurements from natural and anthropogenic plumes. Due to the different nature of these remote techniques, it has been necessary to design several field experiments and to homogenize all data before comparison. In this sense, the SO2 traceability, because of its high chemical stability in the atmosphere, has been important to assess the performance of the DIAL system by using this experimental strategy. Also, the data obtained from the continuous monitoring of the emissions in the stacks are in good agreement with those provided by the remote sensors. It can be concluded that the new DIAL system works properly in a 4 Km range. Quality control of industrial emission inventories can be considered as a promising line of application of this DIAL system.